Trump order leaves foreign students 'feeling trapped and isolated'
For the last five years, Rozhin Hajian has enjoyed studying at Lehigh University in Bethlehem and being in the United States.
Until last week.
The Iranian-born doctoral student in mechanical engineering still can't believe that the leader of the country she has grown to love signed an executive order halting entry of immigrants, refugees, and others from seven Muslim-majority countries, including hers.
Her parents, whom she hadn't seen in three years, were planning a visit. Now, they won't be able to come, she said.
"It was a complete shock for all of us, me, my family, and all my friends," said Hajian, 28. "I still can't believe it. Last week was devastating."
Hajian is one of 55 students at Lehigh with passports from the countries that Trump's ban covers: Iraq, Syria, Libya, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Most of them are graduate students and most are from Iran, said Cheryl Matherly, vice president/vice provost for international affairs.
"There is a tremendous amount of anxiety right now," Matherly said. "The students are feeling trapped and isolated."
They can't leave the country if there is a family emergency, she explained, or have family come to them. They're also concerned about the inability to leave the country to participate in scholarly conferences, she said.
Lehigh, like other universities around the country, is trying to provide students with as many answers as possible. Schools are advising affected students against international travel.
Nationally, in 2015-16, there were 17,354 international students in the United States from one of the seven affected countries, according to the Institute of International Education. Seventy percent of them were from Iran.
Several local universities — including Pennsylvania State, Penn, Temple, Drexel, Rutgers, La Salle, and Villanova — said they have students from the affected countries.
Temple reported 55 students and 10 faculty, Villanova 10 students and four faculty. Of the schools that were willing to provide numbers, Penn State had the most — more than 200 students and scholars from the affected nations.
"To the best of our knowledge, with the exception of one visiting scholar traveling abroad on personal business, all students and scholars from the named countries are currently in the U.S.," Penn State said.
Penn State is trying to assist the visiting scholar still abroad, the school said.
Rutgers also knows of students who are stranded abroad but declined to provide details.
Hundreds of students and others gathered at Rutgers' main New Brunswick campus Tuesday evening to protest the presidential order.
"I am bothered the most by the inherent way [Trump's] act singles out a single group of individuals who hold dear to the Muslim faith," Rutgers president Robert Barchi told the crowd. He said about 200 faculty and students were directly affected by the travel ban.
Lehigh is assisting a Ph.D. student who went home to Iran for a family matter and now can't get back into the United States, Matherly said.
"The embassy is not granting interviews," she said, and the student is in effect stranded.
Lehigh also plans to bring an immigration lawyer to campus Wednesday to help answer students' questions, Matherly said.
At Penn, tensions are high among students from the affected countries. The university has students from all seven countries, though it declined to provide a tally.
"I basically have two choices," said Aula Ali, 19, a Sudanese freshman. "Either stay here for however long, to finish my education, but not see my family until I graduate, or give up this to go back and see my family. But even then, I'm not sure if I would be able to continue my education. I'm on aid here."
Penn is providing students, including Ali, with pro bono legal advice. She's in the United States on an F-1 visa. Her current visa has expired and the only way of renewing it is by going back to her native country. But that's not an option now.
Her parents have suggested she transfer from Penn, but Ali doesn't want to do that.
"I worked really hard to come here and I'm not willing to just give it up like this," she said.
Syrian-born Mohammad Oulabi, a Penn freshman, is struggling to focus on his school work as he wonders when he will be able to see his family again.
"I have no idea what to do," said Oulabi, 19, who fled the Syrian civil war at 15 and settled with his family in Cairo, Egypt. "Do I give up on my education? Do I go back home? Do I stay here for four years? If I do, I can't see my family."
Trump's order also has shaken faculty.
Zahra Fakhraai, a Penn chemistry professor from Iran, wonders if she will want to stay in the United States.
"It would break my heart to leave," said Fakhraai, 39, an Iranian and Canadian citizen and a U.S. green card holder. "At the same time, if this country goes in the direction of Nazi Germany, then, ethically, I will not be able to justify staying."
Even with Canadian citizenship and a U.S. green card, Fakhraai, who came to Philadelphia in 2011, said she is unsure of what would happen if she travels outside the United States.
"Some green card holders have come in without any problems. Some have been interrogated at the U.S. border. Others have been turned away," she said. "It shows the extent of the randomness of the problem."
At Lehigh, Hajian isn't just worried about her own situation. Her husband, Milad Siami, also is in the country. He recently received his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Lehigh and has an offer from MIT for postdoctoral work. But she wonders whether he can stay.
"We don't know," she said. "He might have to leave the country when I have two more years to go for my Ph.D. This is a horrible situation, and we're not sure what we will do."
She doubts she would stay if he must leave.
As for her parents, it took them 11 months to get visas to visit her three years ago before the Trump order.
"Extreme vetting is already happening to us," she said. "I don't think this [Trump order] is necessary. I don't see how this is making the U.S. safer, by not letting my parents come here."