US universities are urging international students to return to campus before Trump’s inauguration

CNN
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Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on January 20, with some schools advising international students to return early from winter break amid promises of another travel ban like the one that stranded students abroad at the start of Trump’s last term.

In a country where more than 1.1 million international students enrolled in American colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has promised tougher immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including expanding his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and recalling students visas of “radical anti-American and anti-Semitic aliens.”

International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the United States but do not provide a legal path to stay in the country.

“It’s a scary time for international students,” said Pramath Pratap Misra, 23, a student from India who graduated from New York University this year with a bachelor’s degree in political science. NYU had the most international students in the US – more than 27,000 – in the last academic year.

On campuses from New York to California, students not only braced themselves to take finals before winter break, but some also braced for possible disruptions in their lives and the possibility of not being able to complete their studies. Some universities have encouraged students to postpone or cancel travel plans outside the United States before the commencement.

Cornell University The Office of Global Learning advised students who are traveling abroad to return before the start of the spring semester on Jan. 21 or to “communicate with an advisor about your travel plans and be prepared for delays.”

“A travel ban will likely come into effect shortly after the inauguration,” the university warned students late last month. “The ban is likely to include citizens of the countries targeted in the first Trump administration: Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia. New countries may be added to this list, especially China and India.”

At the University of Southern California, which had more than 17,000 international students during the last academic year, administrators urged foreign students in an email to be back in the United States a week before the Trump White House returns, saying that “ one or more executive orders affecting travel … and visa processing” may be issued.USC has the largest number of international students in California.

“While there is no certainty that such orders will be issued, the safest way to avoid challenges is to be physically present in the United States before the spring semester begins on January 13, 2025,” the USC Office of International Service said, according to a report . in student-led media site.

Additionally, Trump’s promise of “mass deportations” reverberates beyond critical industries like agriculture, leisure and hospitality, construction and health care: potentially complicating matters for some students regardless of their winter break travel plans.

The president-elect has also promised to “automatically” grant green cards to foreign nationals who graduate from American colleges, a proposal that — if pursued by Trump and passed by Congress — could pave the way for potentially millions of international students to become a legal permanent resident.

Shortly after Trump made the pledge in June, however, a campaign spokesman said the group would be limited to the “most capable candidates” and screened to “exclude all communists, radical Islamists, Hamas supporters, America-haters and public prosecutors.” Public charges refer to those who rely on or seek public assistance. Trump has not publicly mentioned the proposal since June, and it is not clear how his new administration will approach the matter.

A day after the presidential election last month, UCLA’s Center for Immigration Law and Policy reminded students that the university “will not release immigration status or related information in confidential student records … without a court order, subpoena, court order, or as otherwise required by law.”

“The university also has a strict policy that generally prevents campus police from engaging in joint efforts with federal immigration enforcement or detaining people at the request of the federal government,” the center said.

In October 2023, after the start of the Israel–Hamas war sparked protests on American college campuses, Trump said at a campaign event that he would revoke student visas and deport “radical anti-American and anti-Semitic aliens” enrolled in universities. He criticized pro-Palestinian protests and said he would send Immigration and Customs Enforcement to what he called “pro-jihadist demonstrations.”

Trump also promised to reinstate and expand his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries – which restricted travelers from Iran, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The administration later expanded the travel ban to include several African countries. President Joe Biden lifted the travel ban after he took office in 2021.

Trump pledged to implement “strong ideological screening of all immigrants” and said the United States would block “dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and lunatics from obtaining residency in our country.”

He has sought to distance himself from Project 2025 — the controversial blueprint for a reimagined federal government released by conservatives at the Heritage Foundation in anticipation of a second Trump term — which proposes eliminating “sensitive zones” that limit federal immigration raids on places like schools and college campuses. The plan was formulated by Trump allies.

“We are very uncertain about the future,” said Gabrielle Balreira Fontenelle Mota, 21, who is from Brazil and is a junior studying journalism and international relations at NYU. “I’m not from a Muslim country or from China, which are places that Trump usually criticizes. So I don’t feel as vulnerable as other international students. … What worries me a little bit more is the ideological screenings that (Trump) said he would implement.”

NYU leaders offered reassurance in an email after the election last month, saying that “as a global institution, we believe that the mobility of our students and scholars across borders is of critical importance.”

“We will monitor all immigration-related proposals, laws and actions that may be of concern to our community,” the email said.

With the specter of restrictive immigration policies, other American universities—among them schools in New England—have offered resources and issued guidance.

Office of Global Affairs at University of Massachusetts Amherst has – “out of an abundance of caution” – urged all international students, academics, faculty and staff to return to campus by day one of the new administration.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology urged students to avoid “making decisions based on social media and news reports or rumors.” Northeastern University, which admits more international students than any American college after NYU, they recommended returning to campus by January 6 to “minimize potential disruption to your studies, work or research.”

Harvard University International Office advised students and scholars to “budget time prior to the start of the semester, before the Martin Luther King holiday in January” to avoid disruption or delays. Wesleyan University recommended in a letter to students traveling abroad that they return by Jan. 19 amid “uncertainty surrounding President-elect Donald Trump’s immigration policy plans.”

“The best way to predict or predict what will happen in the second Trump administration is to look at what happened in the first administration, and what we saw in the first Trump administration was an attempt to restrict access for the foreign-born (students and workers) in all categories,” said Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy, a nonpartisan research organization, during a recent post-election briefing held by the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.