[Peace] News-Gazette: Trump's order leaves three Iranian UI students in limbo

[Robert Naiman]

http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2017-02-02/trumps-order-leaves-three-iranian-ui-students-limbo.html

Trump's order leaves three Iranian UI students in limbo
Thu, 02/02/2017 - 7:00am | Julie Wurth

URBANA — A University of Illinois graduate student who flew home to Iran to
get married over winter break has been unable to return to the United
States because of new U.S. immigration restrictions.

Shayan Tabe Bordbar, a graduate student in computer science, is stuck in
Iran, even though his student visa was approved the day before the new
executive order took effect.

At least two other people with UI ties are stranded in Iran because of the
travel restrictions imposed by President Donald Trump's executive order,
which suspended immigration from Iran and six other countries for at least
90 days to review vetting procedures.

A UI graduate student's Iranian wife, who had planned to come back to
Champaign-Urbana in mid-February, won't be able to return, the UI said.

And chemical-engineering graduate student Erfan Mohammadi, who proposed to
his fiancee, Farnaz Kabiri, when they went home to visit their families in
December, said she is stuck in Iran because the processing of her student
visa was frozen. Kabiri is a graduate student in physics at the University
of Akron in Ohio.

Mohammadi, who is a permanent legal resident and had hoped to become a U.S.
citizen, returned to Illinois several weeks ago before the order, but he
doesn't know when he'll see his fiancee again.

"This is a very hard condition for us," he said. "Students shouldn't be
banned from continuing their education."

UI officials at first didn't know of any students or faculty stranded
overseas when the executive order was signed Friday night.

Bordbar spoke to The News-Gazette via friends and email.

"He went back home to get married and was planning to apply for a dependent
visa for his wife immediately after he got back to the States," said UI
physics graduate student Rezvan Shahoei, who is also from Iran.

Bordbar and his fiancee had been in a long-distance relationship for more
than three years, she said. Bordbar had reapplied for a student visa from
the U.S. Embassy in Dubai, stopping there on the way home Dec. 13 for the
required interview. There is no U.S. embassy in Iran.

He learned Jan. 26 that his visa had been renewed, but before he could pick
it up, he received an email canceling his appointment because he wouldn't
be allowed into the U.S., even with a visa.

"The executive order was definitely a surprise," he said.

Bordbar said he returned to Iran for a visit in the summer of 2014, "and
there was no problem. I got my visa in four weeks and everything was fine."

He has been in contact with his department at the UI and is "hoping for
good news."

"Since I'm not sure how long this situation will last, I can't plan
anything for now. My department is being supportive; they've contacted me
from the first day and I hope they can do something about this situation,"
he said.

Bordbar enrolled at the UI in fall 2013 and finished a master's program in
molecular and integrative physiology, then started a master's program in
bioinformatics in spring 2016. He was scheduled to finish that program next
fall.

'Uncharted territory for us'

UI spokeswoman Robin Kaler said the campus is trying to help students find
other options — through online courses, continuing their studies in Iran or
perhaps through universities that partner with the UI. Canada has already
offered to take in students affected by the ban.

"Universities are pretty collegial about that," Kaler said, noting that the
UI took in students at New Orleans schools affected by Hurricane Katrina.

"Is there a way they can work remotely, perhaps defend a dissertation
through Skype?" she said. "This is all uncharted territory for us. We're
trying to explore ways to make sure that our students can continue their
education and have as little disruption in their lives as possible."

University spokesman Jan Dennis said the UI's three campuses have admitted
21 students from the affected countries for next fall, including 10 at the
Urbana campus. Nine of the 10 at Urbana are graduate students from Iran.

"Hopefully, all of this will be resolved far before then," he said.

Mohammadi said his fiance is in the middle of her graduate studies at Akron
and works as a teaching assistant. If she can't come back soon, her
teaching contract will expire, and her tuition waiver will be canceled, he
said.

"You spend two years to achieve something and now, without any notice,
without you being able to predict, you're not able to get what you deserve.
That's really hard to accept," he said.

Mohammadi has a green card but can't go visit his family. The Trump
administration has said re-entry for permanent legal residents will be
considered on a case-by-case basis, but officials say their status remains
unclear.

His family won't be able to visit him, either, and it will take another two
years to earn his Ph.D.

"It makes your life very unstable," he said. "It's the exact opposite of
the thing you were counting on when you were choosing the U.S. to study."

'Thinking about Canada'

A graduate of Iran's top engineering school, Mohammadi initially came to
the UI because of its reputation in engineering but also because of the
opportunities here. He's interested in wearable electronics (think Fitbit),
and "if you want to go into high-tech research, you don't go to any other
country but the U.S.," he said. "I wanted to have high-quality research and
I wanted to build something that has real impact."

That was his plan: get his Ph.D., work for a tech firm, start his own
company and go into academia.

"I definitely wanted to work here and contribute," he said. "Now it's
completely undetermined."

His fiancee is trying to continue her studies at an Iranian university this
semester. If she doesn't get a visa after the 90 days expires, "I think we
are thinking about Canada as our first option," he said.

He won't leave before he finishes his Ph.D., but he doesn't want to stay
beyond that if his travel continues to be restricted. Like other students,
he's worried the ban will be extended beyond 90 days.

"I am completely doubtful about my future here," he said.

Mohammadi said international students contribute greatly to the United
States. Their own governments have paid for their education up until
graduate school, and U.S. universities can pick the cream of the crop, he
said.

They receive assistantships, usually paid for by their professor's research
grants, but they teach undergraduate classes and spend many hours helping
professors with research, he said. And most of them stay in the U.S. to
work.

He rattled off a list of U.S. companies co-founded by Iranians, including
Dropbox, Oracle and eBay. None of those entrepreneurs could have come to
the U.S. had the executive order been in place at the time, he said, and
future students may go elsewhere.

He loves being on campus and said people there have always been "very
welcoming, no matter what I believe in, no matter what my faith is or what
my color is."

But he's shocked by the recent turn of events, and can't understand why the
ban didn't include exceptions for students or professors.

"Banning people from education and banning the U.S. government from
benefiting from all these special skills and talent — it makes absolutely
no sense," he said.

===

Robert Naiman
Policy Director
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
naiman at justforeignpolicy.org
(202) 448-2898 x1
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