California officials on Thursday said they intend to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration over guidelines announced this week that put restrictions on visas of international students from staying in the United States.

This action makes California the first state to sue over the guidelines. The state's lawsuit comes a day after universities like Harvard and MIT sued in federal court to stop the policy from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The lawsuit seeks to stop the new foreign student visa policy's enforcement until a ruling is made, the NBC reported.

In ICE rules, students holding F-1 and M-1 visas have to leave the U.S. if their classes were moved fully online. To stay, they have to find other ways to keep their status "lawful," like transferring to a school that does in-person classes.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called out the Trump administration for "risking education possibilities," health and wellbeing of the affected students, reported The Hill.

The rules were also met with backlash from academics. The order affects over a million international students in the United States.

California, for one, has the most students on visas than any other state, Becerra said. It is suing on behalf of 21,000 foreign students at its public community colleges.

Becerra added that there are around 184,000 student visa holders in the state of California.

He said the rules "could put everybody at risk of getting the coronavirus or being subject to deportation" if the foreign students do not follow.

The rules were issued on Monday without warning. This reverses the ICE statement last March that said student visa holders would be allowed to stay in the U.S. in light of the pandemic.

The standard policy requires international students to have most of their classes held in-person to stay in the U.S. The change in policy last March was done as an effort to allow for social distancing in schools to protect students against the spread of the virus.

The reversal comes as Trump is pushing for schools to fully reopen next month despite the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases in the U.S. reaching high numbers.

School reopening to be handled by health, education officials

In a report from Los Angeles Times, Governor Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said California's school reopening plans would be made by local education and health officials.

Newsom stressed that he wouldn't be swayed by statements made by the president to reopen schools quickly.

The local officials will look into the state of the COVID-19 pandemic, when making the decision. Newsom warned that the numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state are still surging.

Amid the president's call to reopen schools "quickly and beautifully," health officials think the surge in new cases requires continued distance learning.

In a news conference Wednesday, Newsom said he is not worried about the latest tweets from the president. He said the state needs to focus on the safe reopening of schools.

"We need to make that a foundational principle," he said. "That, to me, is not negotiable."

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