This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
According to reports, various colleges and universities are warning foreign students to return to campus before President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20, 2025, due to concerns about travel bans imposed during his previous administration and his more recent comments on restricting entry into the United States when he returns to the White House. The schools include Cornell University, the University of Southern California (USC), Harvard University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wesleyan University. For example:
- USC’s Office of International Services sent out a letter that states, “A new presidential administration will take office on January 20, 2025, and — as is common — may issue one or more executive orders impacting travel to the U.S. and visa processing. While there’s no certainty such orders will be issued, the safest way to avoid any challenges is to be physically present in the U.S. before the spring semester begins on January 13, 2025.”
- Cornell’s Office of Global Learning warned that a travel ban “is likely to go into effect soon after inauguration” and advised students to return to the United States before the start of spring-semester classes on January 21, 2025. “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 could be added to this list, particularly China and India,” the statement noted.
- Niels Frenzen, a law professor at USC and director of its immigration clinic, said, “We have been doing know-your-rights sessions and lots of students have come in for individual sessions just to check in even if their paperwork is all in order.”
