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Princeton University Dean Warns Against Travel Abroad for Students, Scholars after President Trump's Immigration Order

A university leader warns that the president's executive order could stifle research and travel for students and staff at the Ivy League school.

The dean of faculty at Princeton University sent an email to her colleagues Friday that noted some students and scholars have been "strongly advised" to put off travel outside the United States in the aftermath of President Trump's executive order on immigration.

Deborah Prentice, a professor of psychology and public affairs at the Ivy League school, wrote the email within hours of Trump signing an order that put restrictions on travel from seven predominantly Muslim countries and temporarily halted a refugee program for Syrian immigrants.

The full ramifications of the order were not yet known late Friday after the Trump administration released the order publicly.

Prentice wrote that despite the ambiguity in the immediate aftermath of the order, she said deferring travel was recommended.

"We have strongly advised students and scholars who might be affected and who have travel plans in the coming days to defer travel outside of the United States until there is some clarity and legal analysis of the situation or, if they must travel, to seek legal counsel before they do," she wrote.

Those potentially affected members of the Princeton community were also given some information from a New York-based immigration law firm, Fragomen, that Prentice said has advised the university in the past.

Prentice said in another email Saturday morning that she was not available to comment further. A university spokesman said the administration would not comment further.

Trump said in signing the order that he pledged to "keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America."

Syria was the only country he named Friday, but the order suspended entry for 90 days from countries linked to a statute in the Visa Waiver Program. Besides Syria, those countries are: Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

In her email, Prentice said the order could also affect research and college education.

"We do, however, want ... to express our deep concern about any potential impact on the ability of this and other American universities to engage in teaching and research of the highest quality," she wrote.

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