US Universities Issue Notices About Potential Trump Travel Ban | american news

US colleges and universities are issuing warnings to their international students to return to campus before Donald Trump takes office as president in preparation for a repeat of potential travel bans seen in his first term.

More than a dozen US schools have issued guidance. Some students will be back soon anyway, as their spring semester begins before the president-elect takes office, but others warn that students dependent on an academic visa could be at risk and should return to campus before Trump’s inauguration on 20 .January.

Although Trump’s plans for any travel bans remain unclear, the president-elect has threatened to invoke a travel ban, which he did via executive order in his first term, affecting those from predominantly Muslim countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

This included students and faculty at higher education institutions. More than 40,000 people were denied visas as a result of the ban, according to the US State Department.

The list of schools includes Ivy League universities like Harvard and Brown, Boston schools like Northeastern University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other schools around the country, from Johns Hopkins University to the University of Southern California. Some offer classes that begin the day after Inauguration Day.

Cornell University told his students that a travel ban involving the 13 nations previously targeted by Trump “will likely go into effect shortly after the inauguration” and that new countries could be added to the list, notably China and India. It advised students, faculty and staff from those countries to return to campus before the semester starts on Jan. 21.

Cornell also warned these students to bring all relevant documents and ensure they are up-to-date, with a suggestion to also have “proof of funding and certificate of enrollment or transcript”.

Other schools stopped short of saying a ban is likely, instead advising students to plan and prepare for delays.

In an email to students on special visas shared with AxiosThe University of Southern California said it “is particularly important given that a new presidential administration will take office on January 20, 2025, and — as is common — may issue one or more executive orders affecting travel to the United States and visa processing . While there is no guarantee that such orders will be issued, the surest way to avoid challenges is to be physically present in the United States before the spring semester.”

Wesleyan University’s Office of International Student Affairs wrote in a letter to students: “If you plan to travel internationally during winter break, we strongly recommend that you re-enter the United States and return to campus by Sunday, January 19, 2025.

“With the presidential inauguration taking place on Monday, January 20, 2025, and uncertainty surrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policy plans, the surest way to avoid problems entering the country is to be physically present in the United States in January 19. and the days thereafter in the spring semester.”

More than 1.1 million international students “from more than 210 places of origin studied at US higher education institutions during the 2023/2024 academic year, an increase of 7% from the previous academic year,” according to Open Doorsa data project funded in part by the US State Department.

Students from India and China account for more than half of all international students in the United States.

Jacky Li, a third-year environmental studies major at the University of California, Berkeley, will return home to China on Dec. 21 and return on Jan. 16, though he made his plans months before Berkeley officials made the announcement. He told the Associated Press that concern is growing among international students.

“There is a fear that this kind of restriction will expand to wider society, given the geopolitical tensions today around the world, so the fear is definitely there,” Li told the news agency.

“If the United States is really a champion of academic freedom, what you should do is not restrict this kind of communication between different countries in the world,” he added.

Trump has previously said he will revive the travel ban and expand it, promising new “ideological screening” for non-US citizens to prevent “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and lunatics”.

“We are not bringing anyone from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen or Libya or anywhere else that threatens our security,” Trump said at an October 2023 campaign event in Iowa.

Trump also promised to “revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners at our colleges and universities” in response to the wave of campus protests in support of Palestinians in Gaza and divestment from Israel that swept the country earlier this year.

The Associated Press contributed reporting