In 2017, seven days after Donald Trump took office, fear and confusion took hold of the nation.
The new president signed an executive order banning the entry of people from seven Muslim-majority countries. The result: An untold number of people were left stranded at airports as immigrants and refugees were turned away from the United States.
These people—not unlike many U.S. immigrants who have faced discrimination based on their birthplace—had legal visas or were green card holders.
As the country readies for Trump’s second term, immigrants are recalling the panic and uncertainty that accompanied his first term. Today, some are wondering if they should travel at all.
Raine Kamilova, an international student from Uzbekistan, worries that returning home to renew a visa while Trump is in office could mean not being let back in.
“For individuals in this situation, it’s tough. It is scary to go back home and re-apply for a visa because under Trump, visa rejection rates are higher than normal, especially in developing or Muslim countries,” Kamilova told Amherst College’s student-run newspaper last month.
NBC news reported that in early December, many universities decided to err on the side of caution. Schools including Cornell, Harvard, and the University of Southern California sent emails to international students traveling home for the holiday, urging them to allow extra time upon returning in case of complications or worse—like denial of reentry.
Some are choosing to forego trips home altogether.
“[These students are] not just away [from home],” Mush Shaheen, a Syrian professor at University of Massachusetts Amherst told NPR. "You're oceans away from what you know, and you're homesick, and you were looking forward to going back for a break time, and that is not going to happen.”
Their concern isn’t unwarranted. During Trump’s first term, the administration took aim at student visas when officials proposed a rule that limited the duration that international students could study in the country. The rule specifically targeted students from Muslim and select Asian countries; it was withdrawn by President Joe Biden in 2021.
During his latest run for president, Trump once again campaigned on closing U.S. borders and reinstating his “Muslim ban”—and didn’t bother to tamp down the racist dog whistles.
“I will restore my travel ban to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of our country,” he said. “We don’t want our buildings blown up.”
Hiroshi Motomura, an immigration professor at the UCLA School of Law, explained to Daily Kos that these fears are rooted in Trump’s past ban and visa restrictions as well as the president-elect’s ongoing inflammatory comments against immigrants and “wokeness” in higher education.
But in an age of clickbait and fearmongering media reports designed to drive up ad revenue, it’s reasonable to question whether this caution is overblown.
One Japanese man living and working in the U.S. on a student visa questioned just that as he looked at flight options for a monthlong trip back home.
“My therapist told me to return before January 20th, but I wonder if that’s really necessary since I have a student visa?” he wondered during a conversation with Daily Kos. “I want to spend more time at home. I miss Japan.”
Given its good standing with the U.S., Japan is unlikely to be targeted by any hypothetical travel bans.
But because Trump campaigned on anti-higher education sentiment and vowed to overhaul curriculum and cut federal funding, Motomura said that immigrants holding student visas might also be subject to scrutiny or prejudice as they arrive back in the U.S.
As Motomura explained, it isn’t the validity of a person’s visa status that causes heightened anxiety, but rather the officials deciding who can or cannot enter the U.S. through international airports.
“Many decisions at airports and other ports of entry—to let in noncitizens or to keep them out—are highly discretionary,” he explained.
Motomura speculated that a “change in attitude” among government officials overseeing these ports of entry might “result in more decisions to bar admission.”
This risk is well-known among immigrants coming and going from U.S. soil. Some immigrants legally in the states have opted to stay put altogether because they’ve been treated so poorly upon reentering.
Andrea, whose name has been changed to remain anonymous due to a pending green card application, recalled her boyfriend’s harrowing experience with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents as he entered the country from Colombia under political asylum.
She said U.S. customs agents were intimidating while holding him in an investigations room without a translator.
“Customs does kind of play by their own rules,” she told us. “They can use intimidation tactics and most people with visas are terrified of getting their visas revoked or being deported.”
The result?
“He hasn’t been home for the holidays for over three years. [The holidays are] a very depressing time for him because of that,” Andrea said of her boyfriend. “He could potentially ask for permission to leave the country [to travel somewhere other than Colombia], but he won’t because of the risk of not being admitted back in.”
A State Department spokesperson told Daily Kos that they could not comment on the policy initiatives of any future administration but that they will “work with the President-elect and the transition team to ensure a smooth transfer of power.”
Trump’s transition team did not respond to Daily Kos’ request for comment.
