Editor's note: Andrew Korybko is a Moscow-based American political analyst. The article reflects the author's opinion and not necessarily the views of CGTN.

The U.S.'s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency announced earlier this week that foreign students whose schools have transitioned to entirely online courses for the fall 2020 semester must either transfer to ones that allow them to take in-person classes or leave the country to avoid forcible deportation. This is an exceptionally cruel decision that hurts the foreign students, their schools and America's national interests.

The international students have already invested considerable time and money in the country, pursuing their educational dreams. They had hitherto thought that the U.S. would allow them to stay there to finish their studies. Now, those who don't want to return to their home countries or risk deportation must now scramble to find other schools to enroll in. But this brings with it tremendous technical difficulties, to say nothing of the possibly life-changing stress that's been suddenly foisted upon them.

The first challenge is obviously to find schools that still offer in-person classes and then hope that they have programs relevant to the student's field of study so that they don't waste their valuable time and money for nothing other than to simply stay in the country until the COVID-19 crisis is over.

There is also the question of whether they're even able to transfer their accumulated credits to their new school even if they're able to enroll there and what they'd have to do to return to their original ones once the crisis ends. It might even be the case that their original schools can't guarantee their space unless they continue to pay tuition there as well.

U.S. schools will suffer as well since they desperately need foreign students' usually higher tuition fees to meet emergency budget shortfalls caused by many of their American students temporarily discontinuing their studies for safety reasons. Those that still retain in-person classes obviously can't start an entire academic program from scratch in the next month or two to attract those specialized foreign students who are being forced to leave the schools of their choice because of ICE's new decree.

It's for these reasons why Harvard and MIT are suing the U.S. government for violating the Administrative Procedures Act. CNN reported that the lawsuit alleges that these universities are being placed in an "untenable situation" wherein they're unable to proceed with their plans either way, whether they transition fully online or provide hybrid instruction. Furthermore, they rightly argue that it "is impossible, impracticable, prohibitively expensive, and/or dangerous" to force students to return to their home countries on such short notice.

These universities are globally renowned and highly influential centers of learning, so it's very possible that their lawsuit might result in at least temporarily delaying ICE's decree until the case is resolved in the court of law. This is also an urgent matter of public safety since some suspect that the Trump administration simply wants to pressure the country's schools into prematurely reopening for purely political reasons related to boosting the incumbent's re-election prospects despite COVID-19 not being anywhere near defeated in the U.S.

Both foreign students and U.S. schools alike stand to lose from the Trump administration's unreasonable policy, but so too does the American government itself. CNN reported that 52 percent of the U.S.'s international students come from China and India, meaning that they're the most likely to be affected by this decision. China and India are the world's two most populous countries and are among the U.S.'s most important foreign partners anywhere on the planet. By punishing its law-abiding guests, the U.S. could make the aspiring young talents suspicious of American intentions and provoke negative reactions from their governments.

The U.S. needs to realize that everyone loses from ICE's latest decree. Over a million foreign students' lives might be forever ruined; American universities will lose precious revenue during these economically desperate times, and the U.S. government itself is sacrificing its hard-earned soft power by potentially turning aspiring elites against it and scaring future ones away from ever trusting it again. Trump should put a stop to this madness before the damage is done and becomes irreversible.

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at opinions@cgtn.com.)