Colorado is party to a new lawsuit filed Monday challenging the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement decision that international students cannot live in the United States and only take classes online in the fall, despite the circumstances brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Active students currently in the United States enrolled in such programs must depart the country or take other measures, such as transferring to a school with in-person instruction to remain in lawful status or potentially face immigration consequences,” the July 6 message from ICE reads.

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, brought by 17 states and the District of Columbia, asks the federal court to postpone the implementation of the decision while the case is underway, and to declare the directive invalid.

“ICE offered no rationale for this abrupt reversal of the March 13 Guidance, which had explicitly allowed exemptions to in-person learning requirements ‘for the duration of the emergency’ our States and schools continue to face,” the lawsuit alleges.

Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office reported that the loss of all international students at the University of Denver would result in a $40 million reduction in revenue to the school. 

On March 13, ICE announced that it would permit international students with visas to count online classes toward their studies. The attorneys general allege that their states’ colleges relied on that guidance when crafting intricate details for how to resume operations for the fall semester either in person, online or through a combination of learning methods. The lawsuit further claims that there was no basis for ICE to make the sudden decision that it did.

“Choosing to retain plans that greatly limit in-person instruction or eliminate it altogether will leave our students defenseless against the July 6 Directive’s requirement that they depart to study remotely in their home countries – insofar as they are able – or disenroll from school altogether. This would be a huge loss of financial, human, and cultural capital for our schools,” the lawsuit argues.

Referencing a statement from Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli that the July 6 announcement would “encourage schools to reopen,” the attorneys general countered that “Coercing schools into holding more in-person classes in the fall – regardless of the schools’ assessment of the health and safety risks of doing so – harms the Plaintiff States’ ability to regulate their institutions and protect the public.”

An ICE representative said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.