In the midst of U.S. universities issuing warnings to their international student community to be back in the country before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, the University of Arizona will not offer advice to international students traveling abroad during their winter breaks.
According to UA’s statement, the university expects students to be back from their holiday travels before the official start of the semester on Jan. 15, five days before Trump’s inauguration.
“U of A International Student Services maintains regular contact with students and closely monitors any immigration-related developments,” said UA spokesperson Mitch Zak in an email to the Arizona Daily Star.
“In the most recent newsletter, students were notified that if there were policy changes or updates that might impact their ability to travel, study, or work in the U.S., we would update them accordingly,” wrote Zak.
Institutions including Harvard University, Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Brown University, the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, Northeastern University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have issued warnings to international students urging them to return to the U.S. before the inauguration to avoid any hassles with their student visas and immigration processes.
Soon after Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, he issued a ban on immigrants and non-immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries entering the U.S., leading to more than 17,000 students being affected.
Trump has said he plans to expand his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and to revoke student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners,” CNN reported.
International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the U.S. but don’t provide a legal pathway to stay in the country, CNN noted.
Over the course of his campaign this time around, while Trump made promises to automatically give green cards to international students who graduate from U.S. colleges in his second term, he and his running mate, Vice President-elect JD Vance, also pledged mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The UA isn’t alone. Arizona State University, Emory University and the University of Colorado have also decided to not offer guidance to international students.
However, some student representatives at the UA expressed disapproval of the decision.
“As students’ institutional tether, UA should be doing more to educate and advise my international peers about the consequences of international travel during the upcoming presidential transition period. By not taking the lead there, the UA misses an opportunity to help those most affected by these rapid global changes,” said Jeremy Bernick, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council at UA.
Max Thomas, a fellow GPSC representative, said, “In my perspective, it shows that the focus of the UA admin is more on remaining politically neutral than it is on protecting student interests.”
