The Trump administration is now allowing international students to enter the US to attend colleges and universities even if all their courses for the fall 2020 semester are online. The administration rescinded a temporary rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their college or university held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The rescission of the temporary rule comes after Harvard, MIT, and other colleges and universities filed suit, and university leaders, students, and educational advocates criticized the temporary rule noting that it would have jeopardized the health of students, teachers, and university staff and led to a potential dramatic loss of revenue for many educational institutions and the towns where they are located.

President Trump declared a national emergency at the border this morning to access billions of dollars to build a border wall that Congress refused to give him, claiming that the nation faces an “invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our country.” The emergency declaration, issued after the spending package passed by Congress included none of his requested $5.7 billion for 234 miles of steel wall but instead only provided $1.375 billion for about fifty-five miles of fencing, will enable President Trump to divert $3.6 billion budgeted for military construction projects to the border wall. Those funds, along with the presidential budgetary discretion to draw $2.5 billion from counternarcotics programs and $600 million from a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund and the $1.375 billion authorized for fencing, would total about $8 billion in all for construction of new barriers and repairs or replacement of existing barriers on the US/Mexico border.