ICE Memo Restricts Internship Work Authorizations for International Students; Some Universities Pause Applications
Rights & JusticeWell-covered
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The Facts
- ICE's Student and Exchange Visitor Program sent universities a memo dated Aug. 24 restricting certain Curricular Practical Training internship authorizations for international students.
- The memo said SEVP observed a rise in CPT authorizations that appear to violate rules permitting CPT only where training is an integral part of an established curriculum.
- The memo warned that failure to comply with SEVP regulations may cost an institution its certification to enroll foreign students.
- Curricular Practical Training lets students on F-1 visas work temporarily in a field related to their degree while enrolled.
- UCLA paused some international students' work authorization applications after receiving an ICE memo.
- UC Berkeley extended its pause on certain work authorization applications for "the foreseeable future."
- UC Berkeley's international office described the Aug. 24 memo as more narrow, more direct and more restrictive than an earlier mid-August directive.
- ICE sent the guidance to universities certified to enroll international and exchange students through the Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
Context
What is Curricular Practical Training?
CPT is a work authorization that allows eligible students on F-1 visas to take temporary employment in a field related to their degree while still enrolled Daily Bruin. Federal regulations permit it only when the training is an integral part of an established academic curriculum ProPakistani,Daily Times.
What is at stake for universities that do not comply?
The memo stated that "failure to comply with SEVP regulations may result in an institution losing certification to enroll foreign students" Reuters,ProPakistani. Schools suspected of using CPT to create employment rather than for academic purposes could lose the ability to enroll exchange and international students Daily Bruin.
How are universities responding?
Several schools, including UCLA and UC Berkeley, paused certain work authorization applications Khaleej times,Straits Times,Daily Bruin. Berkeley said it will keep processing "degree-requirement" CPT applications and is restarting approvals for doctoral dissertation and master's thesis research CPT, while consulting legal experts on updated procedures https://www.outlook…. Some university officials fear the change will hasten declines in international enrollment WSJ.
Where Left and Right agree, and where they split
- Where Left and Right agree
- The memo's threat to a school's certification to enroll foreign students is real and is what froze work authorizations at UCLA and Berkeley — neither read disputes that leverage.
- Where Left and Right split
- Whether the story is about students whose degree-related training vanished without notice, or about a visa condition whose written terms had drifted from campus practice.
- Why they won’t converge
- The divide is over trust in institutional discretion, not facts: both sides accept the memo's text and the reported rise in authorizations, but disagree on whether an agency's leverage over a school's entire enrollment certification is the bargain itself or coercion needing justification.
How left and right read it
International students are among the least protected people on any American campus, and the agency should have to justify narrowing access to degree-related training rather than leaving schools to guess. Yet the memo pairs rising violations with warnings that noncompliance could cost a school its certification to enroll foreign students; UCLA and Berkeley have paused work authorizations. Guidance that risks a school's entire enrollment certification should be withdrawn or relaxed.
“Universities across the United States face heightened pressure as President Donald Trump's administration moves to restrict certain internship work approvals for foreign scholars” — The Independent
A visa condition means what it says, or it means nothing. CPT exists so F-1 students can train in a field tied to their degree while enrolled, so when SEVP reports a rise in authorizations that appear to violate the rule limiting CPT to training integral to an established curriculum, the written terms have drifted from the practice. That schools certified to enroll foreign students risk that certification is not overreach but the condition itself. Enforce the rule as written.
The receipts — all 26 sources
Wire services (4)
Independent coverage (22)
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