By President-elect Donald Trump’s first term was difficult for attorneys specializing in immigration, Avi Friedman an attorney at WR Immigration, said at a town hall.
What Friedman was offering at the town hall was not legal advice, but educated guesses based on leads that attorneys like him have followed as a result of the difficulties faced during Trump’s first term.
“We didn’t know for sure what Trump might do [last term]. You couple that together with the worldwide pandemic and it made things even more difficult and tough to predict,” Friedman said.
With new insight from the past four years, Friedman predicts that travel bans, extreme vetting and visa delays are the most likely orders to be made on immigration after Trump is inaugurated.
During his most recent campaign, Trump promised to crack down on travel bans, primarily from Muslim countries, which influenced a lot of the predictions presented during the meeting.
Most in attendance at the town hall were international students of varying backgrounds, along with one woman who intends on receiving an offer to join Long Beach State’s faculty upon completing her master’s program.
“I am married and my kids and husband have protected statuses because I am here studying with my visa,” she said, asking to be quoted anonymously. “But the anxiety I feel comes from what will happen if I go home with them and cannot re-enter the U.S., where do we stand?”
Multiple students raised questions about what this means for them as they plan to return to their home countries for the holidays.
The legal professionals present at the town hall advised that those traveling internationally this holiday season should intend on returning prior to Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.
Yet, the biggest piece of advice that both Friedman and Jeet Joshee, associate vice president of the Center for International Education and Global Engagement, provided was to never let one’s visa status lapse.
This means keeping important documents pertaining to their status on them at all times and making sure signatures on documents are up to date when leaving the country or applying for employment.
“Unfortunately, Congress has not moved toward the benefit of immigration for many years,” Friedman said.
Although the reintroduction of in-person interviews for visa applicants and more frequent Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids could be potential issues presented to immigrants by the Trump administration, delays and road blockages in the visa process has been an issue since 2017 and throughout President Joe Biden’s term as well, according to Friedman.
Another talking point of Trump’s campaign were his intentions to remove birthright citizenship, which Friedman, like many other scholars, feels would be extremely difficult and is unlikely to happen.
This is because abolishing birthright citizenship would require a constitutional amendment which is a long process.
Joshee, Friedman and the other advisors sensed the anxiety of many students who asked questions, and assured those in the room that it all seems quite uncertain for everyone when it comes to immigration in the United States.
“Maybe next year we can do another town hall when things are more concrete,” Friedman said, with many heads nodding at the suggestion.
A copy of the town hall presentation, including the advice shared by Friedman, can be provided upon request through the IEC email.
