Ruiyan Wang

A reported list of the Trump administration’s travel bans has startled affected international students at Yale.

The draft list, which was first reported by the New York Times on March 14, categorizes 43 countries into three tiers: red, which means all travel is banned; orange, which means visas are “sharply restricted” and yellow, which means the nation is given 60 days to address perceived issues, with the threat of being moved to another list.

Although the bans may be officially announced as early as Friday, they have not gone into effect yet, and the draft, developed by the State Department, is likely to go through changes upon reviews by foreign embassies, intelligence agencies and the White House. It is also unclear whether people with existing visas or green cards would be included in the ban.

However, students from the listed countries told the News that the fear of potential bans rattled their spring break travel plans and long-term career opportunities.

“The uncertainty surrounding this ban already makes me nervous, impacting how confidently I can plan my future,” said Bintou Leigh ’27 from Gambia, a country on the “yellow” list. “While I sincerely hope it doesn’t go into effect, given past travel bans and the unpredictability of these decisions, I’m preparing for the possibility that it might.”

While the State Department, following President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order to develop the list, said it was “committed to protecting our nation and its citizens by upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process,” some students expressed skepticism about this reasoning.

Leigh said that Gambia, like most other African countries on the list, has no history of posing security threats to the United States, and the ban “feels arbitrary and somewhat unjustified, as if we’re being labeled guilty without a clear explanation.”

“Many people from these nations, including myself, come to the U.S. genuinely aiming to learn, grow and give back,” she said. “To see our ambitions reduced to a perceived security risk undermines both our intentions and our humanity.”

Kirill Putin ’25, who is from Russia, said his friends back in Russia found their home country’s inclusion on the list “strange” coming from the Trump administration, given its friendlier stance towards the nation. 

Russia is on the orange list, which means citizens would be restricted but not cut off from traveling to the United States, and would be required to show up for in-person visa interviews.

“However, it is not my first time living through the consequences of a major political decision made by a government which nobody quite understands,” he said.

Andrei Kureichyk, a Belarusian dissident in exile and an associate research scholar at Yale, wrote to the News that he has heard of students and scholars who cancelled international travel plans and some who were forced to return to the United States early in anticipation of the travel bans.

Some countries on the draft list, such as Bhutan, did not have significant prior friction with the United States or the Trump administration. Others, like Belarus and Russia, have long been under American economic sanctions.

Kureichyk said that proposed travel bans go against the goal of the economic sanctions, which were aimed at punishing regimes but not citizens, some of whom oppose their leaders. By banning people based on citizenship, he said, the Trump administration would limit American access to culture, language and history unique to those countries.

“There are people in Russia who disagree with Putin, protesting against his aggressive war,” Kureichyk said. “There is a huge number of people in Belarus who protested against Lukashenko’s dictatorship. I am sure that there are those in other countries who share the values of freedom and democracy. Why should they be banned from entering the United States? What is their fault?”

A student from Pakistan, listed on the “orange” list, told the News that preliminary news of the ban has already affected him. The student requested anonymity for security concerns. While he planned to travel to Turkey over spring break, upon learning about the draft list on the Thursday before break, he chose to stay in the United States, afraid that the ban would take place while he was abroad. 

Fear of the impending ban is also preventing him from attending his sister’s wedding in April and from visiting his ailing grandmother.

“Her health has deteriorated in the last couple of months, and she is almost on her deathbed,” he said. “If at some point I need to travel, … I cannot even be there for her and she obviously wants to see me.”

While the ban wouldn’t impact Kirill Putin’s long-term plans, as he planned to leave the United States after graduation anyway, it could prevent his parents from attending his graduation. 

He expects the ban to go into effect, given that a similar ban took place in 2017 after a green light from the Supreme Court.

Ghai Tit Tit ’27, who is from South Sudan, included on the “orange” list, said the bans would further complicate his visa applications. 

Student visas for South Sudanese citizens are typically limited to three months or two entries and require reapplication when either of the limitations is reached. Additionally, South Sudanese students need to travel to neighboring countries for each application.

Kureichyk is also worried about meeting his family members, adding that the sentiment is common among international students and scholars.

The preliminary ban also has long-term effects for students from affected countries.

According to Leigh, Gambia’s inclusion on the final travel ban list would complicate her attendance of medical school in the United States.

“My ultimate goal has always been to acquire a world-class medical education, then return home and directly address healthcare gaps in Gambia,” she said. “With limited medical resources back home, studying in America isn’t just about personal ambition, it’s about bringing essential medical skills back to my community.”

The student from Pakistan said the ban might prevent companies from hiring him and sponsoring his visa, especially considering the international nature of the finance industry.

“A company might not want to undertake the rigmarole of putting me through the sponsorship process when they know for sure that I cannot stay in the country and I cannot participate in cross-border deals that require me to travel,” he said.

Students said the likelihood of a travel ban has caused “harrowing” and “distressing” effects to their day-to-day life, as well as frustration about how they perceived the global role of the United States.

Leigh said the news of the draft list shocked her not because travel bans are unprecedented but because “it felt personal, targeting the community that raised me.” It caused a “mixture of frustration, fear and resignation” among her international friends on campus, she said.

The Pakistani student further expressed his disappointment about his idea of America, a country which he expected to treat everyone equally and assume everyone is innocent until proven guilty.

“One of the biggest reasons that inspired me to come all the way here for college is the American Dream, which basically means inclusivity,” he said. “To be treated like a second-class citizen on a day-to-day basis is very disheartening.” 

“Obviously, it breeds a very xenophobic narrative in the student body, and I’m lucky that I’m at a place like here where people have the resources and education to be empathetic,” he added about the bans.

Yale admin bides its time

Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis told the News that he expects students, not permanent staff members, to be more affected by the bans if they are enacted, and encourages concerned students to contact the OISS — the Office of International Students and Scholars — for advice.

“We’re working closely with the Office of International Students and Scholars, and they have reached out to everybody who’s from one of those countries,” Lewis told the News. “And if anybody hasn’t heard from them, they should go ahead and reach out to them to help strategize about what to do, if this actually takes place.”

Yale said it would offer short-term legal assistance to students at risk of deportation as a result of pro-Palestinian protests, and a University spokesperson reiterated that Yale would not voluntarily share student information with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.

Still, students remain skeptical that the University can provide practical help. According to the Pakistani student, the OISS did not provide much advice apart from urging him not to travel.

The OISS did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

A letter written by Yale law professors Muneer Ahmad and Michael Wishnie on March 16 and circulated by the Yale chapter of the American Association of University Professors urged those affected to return to the United States “as soon as possible.”

Kureichyk told the News that universities like Yale should unite to warn politicians against the dangers of isolationism.

“It is difficult to say about the legal steps that American universities can take to protect their academic freedom, including the freedom to accept international students and scientists,” Kureichyk wrote. “But I am sure that by uniting, American higher education can become a great force.”

Yale has been less vocal about the administration’s immigration policies compared to this point in Trump’s first term, instead choosing to wait to react to impactful policies.

Many universities, including Harvard, Cornell and Brown, asked students prior to or during winter break to return prior to Trump’s inauguration. Yale did not issue such statements. Ozan Say, director of the OISS, told the News in a Feb. 14 interview that the office was waiting to respond to concrete policy changes instead of speculation.

“I’m sure there will be things that we didn’t foresee and will surprise us entirely when it comes out,” Say said in February. “Definitely, those things will happen, but it’s been only three weeks. This is a marathon, so I think we need to pace ourselves.”

Yale’s first international student arrived between 1805 and 1810.