Colleges Warn International Students to Get to Campus Before Trump Takes Office

With finals concluding at many colleges this week and winter break approaching, several institutions, including Harvard, USC, and Cornell, are urging international students to return to campus ahead of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

During his previous presidency, Mr. Trump enacted a travel ban targeting seven majority-Muslim countries, leaving thousands of students stranded abroad. Later in his term, he expanded the list of restricted countries and expressed intentions to reinstate similar measures if re-elected.https://wordpress.com/

Cornell’s Office of Global Learning recently posted a notice online cautioning students to be back in the U.S. before spring classes begin on January 21, stating, “A travel ban is likely to be implemented shortly after inauguration.” The office warned that the ban could affect citizens from countries included in the prior administration’s list, such as Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia. Additional countries, like China and India, could potentially be added.

Colleges are also advising all students to prepare for possible border delays and administrative hurdles. Harvard’s guidance to international students emphasized planning ahead, noting, “Allow extra time for travel and paperwork processing prior to the January Martin Luther King holiday.”

Similar advisories have been issued by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, MIT, the University of Pennsylvania, and Wesleyan University. These recommendations are precautionary, as the exact policies of the incoming administration remain unclear.

Mr. Trump has expressed interest in reinstating or tightening the travel restrictions introduced during his first term. At a September event with Republican donor Miriam Adelson, he pledged to “seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” seemingly referring to the earlier restrictions targeting majority-Muslim countries. He also mentioned plans to ban refugee resettlement from “terror-infested areas” such as the Gaza Strip.

According to the Open Doors data project, which receives partial funding from the U.S. State Department, over 1.1 million international students were enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year. India and China topped the list as the primary countries of origin, accounting for over half of the total international student population, with South Korea ranking third.