ABOUT HALF OF THE Iranian students at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) announced this week that they will refuse to verify their student status by appearing before federal immigration officials unless President Carter's order requiring such action is proved legal. The students maintain correctly that Carter's action represents a "classic case of bending the legal system to suit the prevailing mood."
While Carter's handling of the Iranian crisis has generally been admirable, his order requiring Iranian students to redocument their status aims at the wrong people: he has singled out innocent individuals for legal harrassment, an unethical and undoubtedly ineffective way to get at the terrorists.
With three cases already pending which challenge the legality of the order, the students' wait-and-see attitude seems both sensible and correct. While the courts consider the problem, Harvard's International Office should continue to advise Iranian students about the documents they may need to satisfy the order. The choice however, as University officials rightly point out, should be left to individual students.
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