On January 27, 2017, President Trump issued an Executive Order on Immigration (EO) containing provisions that directly affected our DePaul international community. On March 6, a revised executive order was issued.
Over the past month, the International Student and Scholar Services (ISS) has developed and implemented a communication plan to current students designed to alleviate some of the anxiety and uncertainty that has resulted from the order. Although the original EO specified seven countries (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen), and the revised order removed Iraq from the list, students and scholars from other parts of the world have also been affected by recent developments.
In an effort to address questions and concerns from our community, personalized communication was immediately sent to students and scholars from the seven countries after the Jan 27 order. Recognizing that everyone in the DePaul international community would also have questions about the ways in which the EO would affect them, an additional communication was directed to all international students and scholars. Further communication was sent to all international students after the revised order. ISS staff members have been available to meet with students and scholars every day, either through appointments or during walk-in hours.
Due to the fluidity of various developments, including
recent court decisions, and further legal challenges to the revised order, ISS
is closely monitoring changes and utilizing resources available through
NAFSA: Association of International Educators. To encourage
students to rely on trustworthy sources and to simplify the content of the
Executive Orders, ISS has also created a FAQ
document available to the DePaul community.
The ISS also coordinated with Student Legal Services (SLS),
University Counselling Services (UCS) and the Dean of Students office (DOS) as
well as other campus partners to ensure that we were all working together to
prioritize our students who were struggling during this time. In true
DePaul fashion, faculty, staff and students continue to reach out to ISS and
international students to not only express a message of solidarity, but also to provide concrete help with
generous offers to open their own home
to host students in need and to create job opportunities on campus for affected
students. In uncertain times it is reassuring to once again witness the strong
commitment to welcoming people from all countries and all religions to the
DePaul community.