Foreign students urged to return to US campuses before Trump inauguration

Published 5:55 PM ET, Tuesday December 24, 2024

More than a dozen US universities have issued advise to its international students, urging them to return to campus before President-elect Trump’s inauguration on January 20.

Trump has often threatened a huge deportation campaign when he comes to office, which could include revoking the legal status of many people who are currently in the nation. He has previously threatened to revoke student demonstrators’ visas, and during his first term, he imposed a travel ban that stranded hundreds around the world.

“The immigration landscape is likely to change under the new presidential administration. This guidance is intended to inform and assist international students, faculty, and staff at Cornell University,” Cornell said in a notice to students, singling out students from countries including Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Sudan, Tanzania, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen and Somalia. 

Schools are also warning that international students should travel with additional documentation of their connection to their American college.

“With the presidential inauguration happening on Monday, January 20, 2025, and uncertainties around President-elect Donald Trump’s plans for immigration-related policy, the safest way to avoid difficulty re-entering the country is to be physically present in the US on January 19th and the days thereafter of the spring semester,” Wesleyan University said.  

In the 2023-24 academic year, a record number of 1.1 million international students came to U.S. colleges to study.

Trump has already threatened to “revoke the student visas of radical anti-American and antisemitic foreigners at our colleges and universities,” and he has indicated that a military crackdown could be involved in his plans.

“Since our last message earlier in November, many of you have asked questions about potential changes to immigration policies,” Harvard told its international students. “Our recurring advice to those who share concerns about situations that would disrupt or delay your return from break is to budget time ahead of the semester start, prior to the January Martin Luther King holiday.” 

Also sending out similar statements were Johns Hopkins University, the University of Southern California, Northeastern University, Brown University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Haverford College, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Yale University, Princeton University, Quinnipiac University and the University of Connecticut.