He wrote "I’m not trying to justify deportation proceedings, merely asking a question?" That clearly implies he was referring to people here already.
But you have a certain Pavlovian response to damookster now where you can't help but interpret his words in a more negative way than if I were interpreting his words.
Read his previous paragraph. He asked why someone needs to be in the US for online courses. That applies as much to those who are already here as to those yet to come in.
And you don't have to be for deportation proceedings to think that students already here don't need to be, for purely online courses. In fact, if his first paragraph was about people who are yet to come into the country, the qualification in the second paragraph don't make sense. You can't deport someone who is not in the country.
ETA: you say he was referring to people here already, as do I. Mookie says he's referring to people who haven't yet come to the country. So looks like what he said was interpreted by us the same way, and Mookie didn't successfully get across his point that he was talking about those not yet in the US.
Amusing that in your rush to spot a pavlovian response in me, you revealed your own biases.