Yale professors warn international students new Trump travel ban may be imminent

Yale Law School professors have sent a warning to international students about an imminent US travel ban, as the Trump administration appears poised to implement sweeping new restrictions on foreign nationals entering the country.

In an email on Sunday night, Yale law professors Muneer Ahmad and Michael Wishnie warned students from potentially affected countries they should consider returning to the United States immediately if abroad or avoid leaving if currently in the US.

“While the government has not formally announced a travel ban, credible reporting strongly suggests that it may imminently suspend the admission of nationals from targeted countries, just as it did in 2017,” wrote the professors, who both instruct on workers and immigrants rights. It’s unclear if the email went to all Yale Law school students, and the university did not respond to a request for comment on whether an official advisory was coming.

The email followed similarly timed notices from Brown University, coming after reports from Reuters and the New York Times that the Trump administration is considering a sweeping new travel ban that could target citizens from as many as 43 countries, with 11 nations facing a complete travel prohibition.

According to the outlets, the most severe restrictions would apply to a “red list” of 11 countries whose nationals would be flatly barred from entering the US: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.

A second “orange” tier would include countries facing sharp visa restrictions, including Belarus, Pakistan, Russia and Haiti. A third “yellow” tier would give 21 countries, mostly in Africa, 60 days to address security concerns.

Yale’s email guidance went beyond those from targeted nations, adding that all foreign students and scholars could face heightened scrutiny. The law professors indicated that individuals might be questioned about support for Palestinian causes by border officials and could have their visas revoked based on their responses.

“We cannot advise you on how to answer such questions,” the professors wrote, “but you should be prepared to respond to them.”

The notice is also a part of a broader pattern that began months ago, when more than a dozen US colleges and universities began issuing advisories to their international students to return to campus before Trump assumed office, anticipating a repeat of the travel bans seen during his first term.

The impending travel ban follows Trump’s somewhat low-profile 20 January executive order mandating the state department identify countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries”. The department’s report, due by 21 March, is expected to finalize these recommendations before implementation.

Across university campuses, the potential ban and targeting barrage has rocked student and faculty bodies alike, particularly after recent high-profile deportation cases. Dr Rasha Alawieh, a kidney transplant specialist and professor at Brown University’s medical school, was deported to Lebanon last week despite holding a valid visa and securing a court order temporarily blocking her expulsion.

Judge Leo T Sorokin of the federal district court in Massachusetts later noted there was reason to believe US Customs and Border Protection had “willfully disobeyed” his order to provide notice before deporting Dr Alawieh.

Meanwhile, Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University graduate and permanent US resident, was detained at his university apartment while his eight-months pregnant wife watched. Khalil, a Palestinian born in Syria who had served as a mediator between protesters and university officials during campus demonstrations, was transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in New Jersey before being flown to Louisiana without his family being informed of his whereabouts.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations responded to the developing situation in early March by issuing its own travel advisory, urging those legally present in the US to avoid international travel for the next 30 days if they are citizens of countries potentially affected by the ban.