Dear Matt,
Spring has sprung in Washington, D.C. and we have the cherry blossoms to prove it!
This week brought a new executive order—long anticipated—that directed Secretary of Education Linda McMahon to “take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education.” This comes on the heels of the drastic staffing reductions at the department, including the March 11 termination of the entire staff that operates the International and Foreign Language Education office. Litigation followed the March 11 staffing cuts and it is expected to follow this executive order as well.
Meanwhile, the funding freeze that has stifled the State Department’s Educational and Cultural Affairs programs continues. The Alliance for International Exchange has determined that about 25 percent of pending payments to their member organizations have been disbursed over the last week—up from 15 percent the week before. This is hardly satisfactory, nor does it assuage our fears about future funding for these programs. Our call for Congress to intervene continues! Help us convey to Congress the ramifications of losing vital international education and exchange programs at the Departments of Education and State! Our voices matter. As a result of concerted advocacy, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME-01) and Rep. Madeline Dean (D-PA-04) are currently co-leading a House sign-on letter to Secretary of State Rubio urging him to immediately release all grant funds and provide much more transparency into the current and future outlook for these programs and their participants.
In other news, we are the monitoring closely immigration enforcement actions against international scholars, most recently, an Indian postdoctoral fellow at Georgetown University, Badar Khan Suri. A U.S. District Court blocked federal immigration officials from removing Khan Suri “unless and until the Court issues a contrary order.” The basis for these enforcements stems from a provision in a January 29 executive order that states: “an alien whose presence or activities in the United States the Secretary of State has reasonable ground to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States is deportable.”
On March 14, the Department of State indicated in the Federal Register that all immigration-related rulemaking and related “efforts” are foreign affairs functions covered under the “foreign affairs exception” to the Administrative Procedure Act. That means that Department of Homeland Security and any other agency involved in the immigration process can issue regulations without first publishing a proposed rule or accepting any public comment. More information is available on NAFSA’s website.
NAFSA is also keenly aware that the January 20 executive order which directed relevant agencies to submit a joint report within 60 days that identifies “countries for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or a full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries” was due March 21. We will keep you informed.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Thank you kindly.
Best,
Erica
Erica Stewart
Senior Director, Advocacy & Strategic Communications
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
