‘Another blow’: How Trump’s latest travel ban could harm research

Restrictions on immigration from 19 countries could disrupt infectious disease research and international collaborations

The Trump administration has issued travel restrictions for 19 countries.Credit: Mario Tama/Getty

Scientists have been quick to react to US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a new version of the controversial travel ban introduced during his first presidency.

The latest policy, issued on 4 June, places an indefinite ban on citizens from a dozen countries entering the United States and comes into effect on 9 June. Affected countries include those targeted by the 2017 travel bans, such as Iran and Libya, along with further countries, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad and Haiti. Partial restrictions on another seven countries, including Burundi, Cuba and Turkmenistan, will deny entry to all immigrants and some people visiting the United States on specific visas.

Kristian Andersen, an evolutionary biologist at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, says the travel restrictions will be extremely disruptive to infectious-disease research, response and collaboration. “We have multiple colleagues in the affected countries — including countries that are currently experiencing significant outbreaks and epidemics that may well evolve into larger public-health emergencies,” he says.

The travel ban will likely affect a relatively small number of students at universities in the United States, but it comes after several announcements restricting immigration for students, says a researcher at a major American university who requested anonymity to protect their institution. Last week, the administration announced it would revoke visas for Chinese students. “This feels like the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” they say. “On top of everything else, it is a question of survival for American research universities and I would not be surprised if you start to see, if this persists, universities taking some very drastic measures.” That could include institutions relocating outside the United States, they say.

Disrupted projects

David Levine, a health economist at the University of California, Berkeley, has just started a research project in Chad and is now worried about disruptions to that work. The project is looking at the distribution of oral rehydration salts, a life-saving treatment for diarrhoea. The results of that work would have direct implications for millions of children in the poorest countries around the world, he says. For now, Chad has not reciprocated with a travel ban on US citizens, but that is a risk, says Levine. Doing research in countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Haiti is already hard, he says. “We don’t need more barriers.”

In a statement published by the White House, Trump said the travel restrictions were intended to prevent terror attacks, with the restrictions placed on each country determined by “the severity of the threat posed”. Visas already issued won’t be revoked, said the statement, and some travellers will be exempt, including those who belong to a persecuted minority group or have dual citizenship.

The administration is essentially banning the issuing of visas for workers or visitors from these countries, including scientists, says Sherwin Noorian, a US immigration lawyer at Globalised in Melbourne, Australia.

On the same day, Trump also suspended visas for all foreign nationals seeking to join Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, essentially preventing them from entering the country. The US administration is also considering revoking visas for current students at the prestigious institution. The decision was made “to safeguard national security”, according to the president’s statement. It came only weeks after the administration attempted to ban Harvard from enrolling foreign students, a move that was temporarily blocked by a judge in Massachusetts after Harvard filed a lawsuit against the government.

Chilling effect

Pedro Antonio Valdes-Sosa, a neuroscientist at the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China and Cuban Neuroscience Center in Chengdu, China, and co-chair of the scientific advisory board of the international Organization for Human Brain Mapping, says that given the current environment in the US, he and the organization’s other leaders are considering ceasing to hold meetings in the United States.

Andersen, too, says his team has abandoned plans to host international conferences and workshops in the country.