Universities warn international students to come back to campus before Trump inauguration

More than a dozen U.S. universities have issued guidance to their international students urging them to be back on campus before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Trump.

Trump has repeatedly threated a mass deportation effort when he returns to office, potentially including revoking the statuses of many currently in the country legally. He has also threatened to nix the visas of students protesters, and, during his first term, he instituted a travel ban that left thousands stranded 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,” the school 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 2023-2024 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.