Dear Members of the UMBC Community,
On Friday, January 27, President Trump issued an executive order imposing a 90-day ban on citizens of seven countries entering the U.S. These seven countries are Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Somalia, and Yemen.
Since then, the campus leadership team, UMBC’s Office of International Education Services, and other campus offices have been working proactively to determine the status and needs of students, faculty, and staff who may be affected by this development. We are responding as quickly as possible to provide resources in the midst of these rapidly evolving circumstances and will support, through all available means, members of our UMBC community whose studies and careers are threatened by this or other changes to existing immigration regulations.
We understand that UMBC faculty, staff, and students who are citizens of one of the seven designated countries (interpreted by some Customs and Border Protection officials to include U.S. permanent residents) may be concerned about their visa status and travel outside the U.S. In the near term, the University recommends that members of the UMBC community who are citizens of the seven listed countries and are currently in the United States refrain from international travel as we monitor these events. Community members seeking guidance regarding their travel plans are encouraged to contact the International Education Services Office (ies@umbc.edu).
The IES Office is currently developing a set of resources/FAQs to offer further guidance for UMBC community members. In the meantime, initial guidance can be found on the NAFSA-Association of International Educators website, as well as on the American Immigration Lawyers Association’s website.
In order to respond effectively to the needs of our community, we are reviewing available records to identify those community members who may be affected by the executive order. We also ask anyone with knowledge of community members currently traveling abroad who are citizens of the seven affected countries holding valid entry and residence visas to please share that information with the IES Office at ies@umbc.edu.
While this recent executive order particularly impacts community members from a select set of countries, we are deeply concerned that it will have a chilling effect on higher education and research broadly. It challenges UMBC’s culture of inclusive excellence, and we will work closely with campus shared governance groups to advocate for our central values in the weeks and months ahead.
Freeman Hrabowski and Philip Rous
