The ongoing rule changes and legal battles over immigration are affecting international students at the state’s colleges and universities.
Martin McFarland is the Director of International Students and Scholar Services at the University of Illinois. Speaking on the Illinois Public Radio talk show The21st, McFarland says the people he works with are getting frustrated with all the uncertainty.
McFarland: “What was initially anger at a lot of these changes felt by our students … our international faculty, staff, and scholars … and that anger, while still existing, I feel has turned into frustration.”
Most recently, a federal appellate judge ruled last week that parts of the Trump administration’s “travel ban” for six countries could be partially implemented. People from Iran, Lybia, Chad, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia without direct ties to the United States can now be denied entry into the country.
McFarland says his office is having to serve a new role of explaining rapidly changing immigration policy and procedure with little or no advance warning.