LOS ANGELES, July 9 (Xinhua) — The 10-campus University of Hawaii (UH) system released a public letter to its students, faculty, and staff on Thursday, pledging to support international students who could affected by the new order from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The ICE announced a new guidance for international students in the United States, saying it could imperil them if their universities switch to online-only courses in the fall due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The move prompted Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Wednesday to file a federal suit against the U.S. government to enforce the rule. Nationwide protests from universities followed.

The UH system, with nearly 2,400 undergraduate and graduate international students enrolled in fall 2019, called the order “unfair, harmful and inappropriate.”

“The federal government’s new guidance has created unnecessary fear and uncertainty for international students on our UH campuses and across the nation,” the letter read.

The university said that after studying the new guidance and reviewing the rules, the authority believed that they can support international students to continue their studies under the current guidance, even if the campus needs to revert back online.

According to data from College Factual, there were about 200 Chinese students in the UH system in 2018.

“Over the last several years the total international population of students on (UH) campus has grown at an average rate of 3.0 percent. China is the largest contributor to this growth, with an estimated total of 192 students,” the New York-based data website said. Enditem