Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

Official newspaper of The University of Texas at Austin

The Daily Texan

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October 4, 2022
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Professors and student discuss previous and revised travel ban executive order

2017-03-07_Immigration_Carlos
Carlos Garcia

Just hours after President Donald Trump released his revised travel ban, a panel of UT professors and a law student discussed the constitutional limits of the order.

The panel included Hina Azam, Middle Eastern studies associate professor, Kamran Aghaie, chair of the Middle Eastern studies department, law professor Stephen Vladeck and law graduate student Safa Peera. The panelists discussed the first travel ban from a legal perspective, gave examples on how the travel ban affected non-American and American citizens and compared the revised executive order to the original travel ban.

Vladeck said there are differences between the original and the revised executive orders. These differences include the clarification that this executive order does not apply to American citizens and green card holders and removed the exemption for religious minorities.


“All of these (differences) I think are, from a constitutional perspective, steps that probably strengthen the new executive order, but there are still some hard questions to ask and answer about it,” Vladeck said.

The panel was organized and moderated by Middle Eastern studies lecturer Samy Ayoub. He said it is important to have these conversations about executive orders because they affect people on campus. 

After the original executive order, UT President Gregory Fenves stated the University has 110 students, faculty members and scholars who are citizens of the affected countries.

Aghaie said these conversations are part of our democracy and can make a change in politics.

“(In the United States) we have conversations about things, that’s our politics,” Aghaie said. “We debate ideas, and if we can convince enough people, politics shift as a result of the conversation.” 

A segment where attendees had the opportunity to ask questions followed the panel discussion. When asked what can citizens do to make their voices heard, Vladeck advised to write to your representatives and senators.

History sophomore Alex Elantri said, as a student whose father is from a Muslim country that is not on the list, he considers himself privileged and found it interesting to hear other opinions on the executive order and the legal background.

“It is interesting to see how (the travel ban) affects some people I know who are not in the fortunate situation that I am to be studying here,” Elantri said. “I am half-Arab, half-Moroccan, so it’s kind of a privileged position to be in.”

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Professors and student discuss previous and revised travel ban executive order