Travel plans for members of Carleton’s United Nations Society are in jeopardy after U.S. President Donald Trump enacted a temporary immigration ban earlier this month.
The team is sending a delegation to Boston, Mass., for the Harvard National Model United Nations, but two members might not be able to join them due to complications with the ban.
Though President Trump’s immigration ban has been temporarily frozen by U.S. federal judge James Robart, Nikola Milutinovic, the president of the society, said the two students are still unable to attend the conference.
“The ban was lifted recently, but it’s too late to plan a trip to Harvard for them,” Milutinovic said. “Had it not been for the ban, we understand they would have went.”
Milutinovic said he couldn’t comment further on the situation because of the club’s non-advocacy status.
Kamari Clarke, a global and international studies professor at Carleton, said this is an important indicator as to how the immigration ban can affect international travel to the U.S.
She said she can see some people and organizations protesting the ban by not attending events hosted south of the border.
“Many scholars and people involved in institutions want to figure out ways to be supportive by making a statement and not crossing the border,” Clarke said. “I think in the next week or so we’ll have a better idea of how many of them will actually adopt a boycott position in an effort to show solidarity with those who are being discriminated against.”
Confusion arose around Trump’s executive order since it wasn’t made clear whether Canadians with dual-citizenship to one of the seven banned countries would be allowed to travel to the states. The issues lasted until American officials confirmed that dual-citizens in Canada would be exempt from the ban if they showed a valid passport.
Omar Khan, communications vice-president of Carleton’s Muslim Student Association, said he doesn’t agree with the ban because he views it as religious persecution. Though he does see a silver lining.
“There was Islamophobia before but I’ve noticed that since the ban started that people have begun standing in support of Muslims more so than they did before,” Khan said. “You can see it in the protests that are going on at airports, embassies, and such.”
Clarke said the immigration ban is a form of persecution.
“What we often see is that there might be a few fringe people involved in hate killing or radical expressions of hate and the presumption is that there’s a high probability that all groups of people from a given region are a threat,” she said.
“It’s a very slippery slope, and it’s very dangerous,” Clarke said.
– Photo illustration by Angela Tilley
