New England Public Radio

UMass Amherst Student From Iran Among Those With Revoked Visa, Unbeknownst To Him And Attorneys

Over the last several days, a UMass Amherst student from Iran has been denied access to a flight out of Tehran, where he traveled over winter break to get married.

Mohsen Hosseini, who is working on a PhD in computer engineering, would have flown into Boston, which was believed possible even after President Trump signed an immigration order last Friday. The order bans entry into the U.S. for people from Iran and six other countries, but on Saturday, a federal judge in Boston issued a temporary injunction.

What Hosseini and immigration lawyers didn’t know until this week was the U.S. had also revoked almost all immigrant and non-immigrant visas from those seven countries.

Hosseini said he’s been in touch on social media with three dozen other Iranian students who are also trying to return to school in the U.S.

“Some of these students have problems similar to me, and then we find each other,” Hosseini said.

The situation for students and non-students from the seven countries has been in constant flux. Kenneth Reade, Director of International Student and Scholars Services at UMass Amherst, has been watching all of it up close. He said getting this new piece of information changes the game.

In the short term, he said, “it’s kind of a checkmate.”

Hosseini is among the plaintiffs the ACLU and other attorneys will represent Friday in Boston federal court.

Neal Not Saying How He Will Vote On Iran Agreement

Springfield Democratic Congressman Richard Neal says he’s still reviewing the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration. Neal is not saying how he would vote. But he tells WGBH that Democratic leaders are lobbying rank-and-file members.

“There’s no question that Leader (Nancy) Pelosi has been attempting to shore up Democratic support, or at least in the short term, to make sure Democrats don’t go south or wobbly on the president before all the facts are in,” Neal says.

Congress has 60 days to review the Iran agreement, which has been harshly criticized by some Republican lawmakers. Any move to block the deal would need a veto-proof majority.

UMass Students: Policy On Iranian Applicants Still Discriminatory

UMass Amherst has reversed its ban on Iranian students from entering certain engineering and science programs. But some students say the revised policy is still discriminatory.

Under the new rules, UMass will develop individual courses of study for Iranians that don’t conflict with federal sanctions. Nasim Cheraghi is president of the undergraduate Persian Student Association. She says even though the ban is gone, the restrictions remain discriminatory.

“It’s still not allowing Iranian students to take the same courses as any other student on campus,” Cheraghi says.

Michael Malone, a UMass vice chancellor, says the school has no choice but to follow federal regulations. He acknowledges the new rules are more restrictive than what had been in place.

“I mean, we’re in the opportunity business, we don’t want to have any restrictions on what people can study here, but we have to obey federal laws on all sorts of fronts,” Malone says.

Malone says this revised policy was drafted with help from the State Department.

 

Reaction: UMass Reverses Decision To Bar Iranian Students

After consulting with the State Department, UMass Amherst announced on Wednesday it is reversing a decision to bar Iranian students from entering some engineering and science programs.

The ban on Iranian applicants to these programs is gone, but there are still restrictions. UMass says they’re necessary to comply with U.S. sanctions. The university will develop individual courses of study for Iranians.

“They have moved firmly in the right direction by reversing this outright ban,” says Jamal Abdi with the National Iranian American Council. “We’re going to be talking to students and reviewing the new policy closely to learn exactly how it ensures that there’s no discrimination taking place.”

Abdi credits widespread public backlash for the reversal in university policy.

Despite the change, a pair of UMass student organizations are going ahead with a public forum scheduled for Wednesday night to keep discussing the issue.

UMass Amherst Announces Policy Limiting Admission Of Iranian Students

A new UMass Amherst policy that denies college admission to many Iranian students has sparked anger.

The policy says Iranians will no longer be admitted to certain engineering, natural science, and other programs because of a federal law designed to discourage nuclear and energy research by Iranians.

Jamal Abdi with the National Iranian American Council says UMass overstepped its bounds:

“I think that there’s a possibility that the university read the law, saw the regulations, and believed that it was supposed to be the one policing the sanctions instead of the U.S. government.”

UMass-Amherst spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski says the university is just trying to clarify its admissions policy so Iranian students are not misled. The university posted the new rules online on February 6th, took them down today after getting many calls, and then put them back up again.