Rice establishes international travel incident response team
Rice announced the creation of the International Travel Incident Response Team in a campus-wide email April 1. The move comes amid federal pressures on international travel and an increased immigration law enforcement on university campuses.
The team will be available to give help to students, faculty, staff and postdoctoral scholars who “encounter health, safety, and immigration difficulties while traveling abroad or returning to the United States,” according to the email sent by the Office of the Provost.
The team will be available 24/7 to provide guidance, legal advice or speak with immigration officials. In addition, the email announced that all international university-related travel would require students, faculty, scholars and staff to register their travel with the Rice Travel Registry to then connect people planning for international travel with guidance and resources.
Students and staff traveling internationally on personal trips were also encouraged to register.
The announcement of the team came with additional guidance that foreign nationals are encouraged to reconsider non-essential travel out of the country.
The email mentioned cases where students with visas or legal permanent residence were detained or had their visas canceled without prior notice. Over 300 visas have been revoked by the State Department.
Pro-Palestine activist and Columbia University alumnus Mahmoud Khalil was detained by the Department of Homeland Security for allegedly supporting Hamas. Khalil is a lawful U.S. resident with a green card.
At Tufts University, Turkish graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk was recently detained by the DHS, similarly alleged to have supported Hamas.
“Rice strongly affirms its enduring commitment to our international students, faculty, scholars and staff, and to the value and perspective that international travel brings to our most important and defining academic endeavors,” the email reads.
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