January 30, 2017

Statement by AERA President Vivian L. Gadsden and Executive Director Felice J. Levine on the White House Executive Order on Visas and Immigration

We are dismayed by the Trump administration’s unprecedented executive order that harshly restricts the travel of immigrant and nonimmigrant visitors to the United States. Aside from the shockingly discriminatory and counterproductive nature of the order—specifically, targeting people of Muslim faith and refugees in dire need of help—it also poses grave consequences for the scholarly exchange and collaboration that is at the heart of all science.

The administration’s executive order would limit the free flow of non-U.S. students and scholars at our institutions, put their safety at risk, and discourage international collaboration with U.S. institutions.

It is critical to education research in the United States to have the benefit of engaging and working with talented scholars and students from countries around the world to advance the highest quality scholarship. The new knowledge that stems from this research is also critical to improving education in the United States and worldwide.

We urge the White House to immediately revoke its executive order. The risk the order poses, not only to scholarly collaboration and knowledge production but also to America’s standing in the world, is far too dire.    

View a PDF of this statement