In a welcome letter sent out to the Harvard community on Friday, President Larry Bacow of Harvard College expresses disappointment regarding the nation’s immigration policies amidst an ongoing affirmative action lawsuit.
In the letter, Bacow said that he felt “disheartened” with the new requirements for immigrants who seek to enter this country. He says international students now entering the country “find themselves the subject of scrutiny and suspicion in the name of national security.”
Late last month, nine international students returning to Arizona State University were stopped at Los Angeles International Airport and returned to China. Immigration authorities also denied entry to a Palestinian student from a refugee camp in Lebanon who had earned a scholarship to Harvard. Harvard officials intervened and that student is now taking classes on campus, according to the Washington Post.
Traveling to Washington D.C this summer, Bacow talked with Congress about his concerns regarding the nation’s immigration policies as a representative of the greater Harvard community. According to his letter, Bacow also sent a letter to the Acting of Homeland Security and the Secretary of State.
“As our policymakers fulfill their necessary obligation to weigh issues of national security,” he said in the letter , “I profoundly hope they will do so with full recognition of the ways that our country’s universities greatly benefit from the presence and participation of talented people from around the world, and the ways that U.S. national interests are served by a system of higher education whose strength rests on a willingness to transcend barriers, not erect them.”
Bacow further argued that as a son of refugees, his own family of immigrants reaped the benefits of the country and prospered, adding that they are firm believers of the American dream. Furthermore, he credited that it should be the university’s job to foster an environment where all people are welcomed, including Harvard.
“The new academic year is a chance for all of us to commit ourselves to create a community that welcomes and embraces people from across the nation and around the world,” he said, “people whose distinctive voices and varied experiences are essential to our common endeavor.”
In 2014, a lawsuit was filed suing Harvard on the grounds of discriminating against Asian American applications within the college admission process. It took another four years, in 2018, for a district court to view this case. It is widely known that Harvard’s admission process is very secretive, but this court case sheds light upon the committee’s practices.
As of today, this case is still pending. The result of the case lies in the hands of Judge Allison D. Burroughs and was not expected to make an immediate decision. She suggested that both the defendant and plaintiff have weaknesses in their argument, NBC News reported in February 2019.
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