Local college students are scrambling to adapt to the Trump administration’s new requirement that certain international students attend in-person classes or return to their home countries.

Fenet Shertaga came to the U.S. from Ethiopia four years ago. She’s nearly finished with her general studies at Montgomery College in Maryland. Many colleges and universities plan to hold most, if not all classes online this fall due to the pandemic. But, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced this week that full-time students on F-1 visas cannot attend classes solely online. Now, Shertaga’s dream of becoming a pediatric nurse could be derailed.

Shertaga says she has felt unwelcome in the U.S. ever since Donald Trump was elected president.

“Right now seems worse because it’s just now I need to pack my bags and go somewhere. It seems like nobody cares,” says 24-year-old Shertaga.

Shertaga doubts she’ll be able to become a nurse if she’s forced to return to Ethiopia. She says conditions there make it hard to take online courses.

“I don’t know how many times per week the electricity is going to go off, or my internet is going to be cut off. So, how am I going to be a full-time student learning online?” asks Shertaga.

Other Montgomery College students remain optimistic that the school will come up with a plan to allow them to stay and study. Raquel Baracho, 36, moved to the area from Brazil a few years ago. She, her husband, and her two children are all learning English. Baracho is studying English As a Second Language at the college. She’s trying to lay down roots here, but the new rules could upend her plans.

“I feel very sad and disappointed because I’ve made an investment in coming here. I bought a car and apartment,” Baracho explains. “The news made me feel sad and afraid. But I’m okay with Montgomery College because they sent me a email saying that they will solve the problem.”

Montgomery College officials say they will talk with the affected students this week about possible solutions to the new ICE rules.

Baracho says she would like to stay in the U.S. and continue learning English and someday return to Brazil. She just didn’t think it would happen so soon.

“If it is okay, I will stay here for two or four years. But if it’s not okay, I’ll go back to my country,” she says.

School officials condemned the new requirements.

“It is disappointing that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has failed to see the true value of international students, by prohibiting F-1 visa holders from remaining enrolled at colleges offering only online learning,” Montgomery College President DeRionne Pollard said in a statement Tuesday. “ICE’s decision confounds the broadly accepted public health protocols by requiring students to return to their home countries, putting many of them at risk for infection through air travel. It also punishes students who elect to take advantage of the fastest growing mode of delivery in American higher education, which is online.”

On Wednesday, Harvard and MIT filed a lawsuit against the United States Department of Homeland Security and ICE over the issue, saying “The ability to provide remote education during the pandemic is of paramount importance to universities across the country.” The lawsuit goes on to say “ICE’s action leaves hundreds of thousands of international students with no educational options within the United States … Moreover, for many students, returning to their home countries to participate in online instruction is impossible, impracticable, prohibitively expensive, and/or dangerous.”