NEIU’s Office of International Programs (OIP) advises international students returning to the USA over winter break to do so before President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20, 2025. An email sent by OIP on Nov. 25, 2024, to international students said, “As the new President of the United States will come into office on January 20, 2025, and because many of you will be traveling during Winter Break, we strongly recommend that you be back in the USA by January 20.”
“We don’t want to be unprepared,” Dr. Cris Toffolo, NEIU’s Director of the Office of International Studies, told the Independent, “Especially since the rhetoric in this campaign was very anti-immigrant.”
“I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” Trump said at a Washington DC campaign event on Sept. 19, 2024, according to Time Magazine.
Trump had been referencing a travel ban he had instituted at the beginning of his first term as president in 2017, which ultimately affected 13 countries, most of which had a majority Muslim population.
The ban went into immediate effect on Sept. 27, 2017, causing chaos and confusion at airports around the world as passengers were prevented from boarding flights or pulled off planes overseas. Passengers who were already in-flight when the ban went into effect were detained at US airports upon arrival, according to an article published by The Guardian at the time. The executive order also provoked mass protests at airports across the US.
“We want to make sure that our students can get back in the country,” Dr. Toffolo said of NEIU’s own advisory, referencing the threat of another travel ban. “We don’t want our students to be caught up in any of that.”
NEIU is not the only school to issue such an advisory. Newsweek reported that Cornell University had also recommended its international students return to the US prior to Trump’s inauguration. Other universities, including the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Wesleyan University have also issued advisories, according to the BBC. Yale University hosted a webinar by its Office of International Students and Scholars to discuss potential immigration policy changes, according to the Yale News student newspaper.
“As the country goes into the new administration, we are paying attention to any changes that may impact you,” the OIP said in its email to NEIU students, “and we will update you as necessary. NEIU continues to be a welcoming community that is here to support you.”
NEIU students with any questions are encouraged to contact Dr. Toffolo at her email [email protected].
