US President-elect Donald Trump’s announcement of his plan to use military force to carry out mass deportations of undocumented immigrants seems to have caught US universities in a frenzy, with many of them asking foreign students, including Indian students, to return from their winter break to the US before Trump’s presidential inauguration on January 20.
Since Trump’s threat was directed to illegal immigrants, it is unlikely to affect students with valid visas, although it is best not to take chances, said US universities. A few US universities have even adjusted their academic calendars so that students return to the US well before Trump’s inauguration.
Speaking to BBC, Chloe East, a professor at the University of Colorado Denver commented, “Students are incredibly overwhelmed and stressed out right now as a result of the uncertainty around immigration.”
Universities that have issued travel advisories to foreign students fearing travel bans and increased scrutiny include the University of Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Wesleyan University. These apprehensions become even more palpable since such travel bans were enforced in 2017 too when Trump was president, and they had a hugely detrimental impact on the lives of international students.
