Fear and uncertainty are spreading across many US college campuses ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s January 20 inauguration, 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 US colleges and universities during the 2023-24 academic year, the former president has pledged more hardline immigration policies upon his return to the White House, including an expansion of his previous travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries and the revocation of student visas of “radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners.”
International students generally have nonimmigrant visas that allow them to study in the US but don’t provide a legal pathway 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 – during the last academic year.
On campuses from New York to California, students not only buckled down to take finals before winter break but some also braced for possible disruptions to their lives and the possibility of not being able to complete their studies. Some universities have urged students to put off or cut short travel plans outside the US before the inauguration.
Cornell University’s Office of Global Learning advised students who are traveling abroad to return before the January 21 start of the spring semester or to “communicate with an advisor about your travel plans and be prepared for delays.”
“A travel ban is likely to go into effect soon after 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 could be added to this list, particularly China and India.”