The University of Michigan on Saturday pushed back against President 
Donald Trump’s “vetting measures,” intended, the commander-in-chief
 said in an executive order signed a day earlier, to keep “radical terrorists”
 out of the country. In a statement, U-M President Mark S. Schlissel said
 officials won’t release the immigration status of its students.
“We are currently focused on potential changes to immigration laws, 
policies and practices that could affect the status and safety of U-M 
students and personnel, particularly international students and those
 who may be undocumented,” Schlissel said in the statement. “This 
includes several programs and policies that affect international 
students and faculty.
“Additionally,” Schlissel continued, “we are working to understand
 the implications on our community of the ‘extreme vetting’ executive
 order blocking immigration from certain countries.”
Trump’s order bans the issuance of visas and other immigration
 benefits to “nationals of particular concern” for 90 days, indefinitely
 suspends the Syrian refugee program and bans the resettlement of 
refugees from the affected countries for four months. The countries 
affected by the vetting measure have Muslim majorities, and include
 Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan Syria and Yemen.
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The University of Michigan’s position, which is generally in line with 
its policy on non-discrimination, privacy, and public safety, comes as
 colleges and universities are trying to sort out how Trump’s order 
affects international students, the Chronicle of Higher Education 
reported. As many as 15,000 international students could be 
affected, the majority of them from Iran.
A Yale University doctoral student from Iran who is currently doing
 research overseas tweeted that he’s unsure if he will be allowed to
 return to the United States to continue his education.
sent out a series of tweets from Iranian students worried they won’t 
be allowed entry back into the United States.
Several universities across the country have advised students to 
avoid traveling out of the country, or to return as quickly as possible
 if they’re already abroad.

See Also


The University of Michigan’s main campus is in Ann Arbor, an
 unofficial sanctuary city that has a reputation for shielding
 undocumented immigrants. A secondary campus is in Dearborn,
 which has the highest concentration of Arab-American residents 
of any U.S. city. About 40 percent of the city’s nearly 96,000
 residents are Arab-American, and the majority of them are 
practicing Muslims.
Read Schlissel’s full statement.
Photo of University of Michigan Law School by Jason Crotty via
 Flickr Commons