Princeton University Helping Students, Staff Impacted By Executive Order

PRINCETON, NJ — Princeton University is already working to help a small number of students and scholars who are traveling abroad and are having difficulty returning to America in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order barring entry to the United States for refugees and for citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries, University President Christopher L. Eisgruber wrote in a statement on the university’s website on Sunday.

It is among a number of steps the university has taken assist those affected by the executive order, including messages providing preliminary information about the order and its consequences from Dean of the Faculty Deborah Prentice and Dean of the Graduate School Sanjeev Kulkarni.

“Staff members in the Davis International Center and elsewhere on campus are working around the clock to assess the full impact of the order and to aid and counsel members of our community, including those who are currently outside the United States,” Eisgruber said. “The legal implications of the executive order have been evolving rapidly. My colleagues in the university administration will continue to monitor developments and identify appropriate ways to assist affected individuals. We will update the community as needed to ensure that our students, faculty, and staff know how to obtain information or help.”

The executive order, signed on Friday, bans citizens from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from coming into the United States. A federal judge temporarily blocked part of that order Saturday night, preventing the deportation of some new arrivals subject to the ban.

In the letter, Eisgruber went on to say that Princeton will continue to safeguard personal information about non-citizens as it does for all of its students, faculty, and staff.

“As I noted in a previous letter to the community, Princeton has policies in place to protect the privacy of every member of the University community,” Eisgruber said. “We do not disclose private information about our students, faculty, or staff to law enforcement officers unless we are presented with a valid subpoena or comparably binding requirement.”

Princeton is in support of the BRIDGE Act that would extend protection for students covered by DACA (the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy).

“Princeton's current activity builds on a consistent history of advocacy for policies permitting foreign scholars and students to come to the United States,” Eisgruber said. “Much of that advocacy has occurred in cooperation with the Association of American Universities, of which Princeton is a member. The AAU has issued a statement of concern about the recent executive order, and we endorse that statement fully.”

Eisgruber said the university’s policy on immigration reflects its conviction that every single person on the campus has benefited from the ability of people to cross borders in search of learning or a better life.

Eisgruber said his parents came to America as refugees from a war-torn continent, and would have died if they had been denied visas.

“My father first came to America as an exchange student from a country that had recently been at war with the United States, and he then studied at Purdue University as a foreign graduate student,” Eisgruber said. “Immigration has been a source of creativity and strength for this country throughout its history. It is indispensable to the mission and the excellence of America's universities, which enhance this country's economy, security, and well-being through the students they educate and the ideas they generate. Princeton will continue supporting students, faculty, and staff of all nationalities and faiths, and we will continue making the case for policies that simultaneously respect this nation's legitimate security interests and allow for the free and vital movement of students and scholars across borders.”

Patch file photo