Monitoring developments around President Trump’s new executive order restricting new work visas

Dear colleagues,

We have been monitoring closely the developments around President Trump’s new executive order, signed yesterday, restricting new work visas for citizens from outside the United States. This new order applies to the issuance of new work visas (H1-B, J, and L) to individuals currently residing outside of the United States. It does not affect current visa holders or those with F-1 visas and it does not affect OPT or STEM OPT. At this point, no member of our community is directly impacted. We continue to be in touch with all faculty and staff who hold visas and recent alums on OPT to share updates from our legal counsel.

I want to express my profound disagreement with this executive order and the broader effort by this administration to restrict the flow of people across borders. As I’ve written before, this is antithetical to our scholarly mission and purpose which is premised on the free flow of people and ideas that are vital to the creation of knowledge and core to our commitment to global diversity and inclusiveness.  

Jenny Medina and Bri Rhodes in the McCulloch Center lead our efforts to support our faculty, staff, and students on immigration issues. Please reach out to them if you have any questions or concerns.  Thank you and take care.

Best,
Jon Western
Dean of Faculty