GREENWICH VILLAGE — A New York University Ph.D student was among those temporarily detained at John F. Kennedy Airport Saturday after President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting entry into the U.S. for people from certain countries with majority Muslim populations.
Narges Bayani was held at JFK Saturday, but released Sunday, after the school and elected officials intervened on her behalf.
"I am in awe and absolute admiration of the solidarity of the American people in response to such inhumane and discriminatory regulations. It feels like a sweet personal victory over hate," Bayani wrote on Facebook after her release.
NYU student newspaper NYU Local first wrote about Bayani's plight after her sister wrote a Facebook post, which was shared on Twitter.
Bayani — who has lived in the U.S. since 2009 and has a full scholarship to study at NYU's Institute for the Study of the World for the next five years — was poised to wait two days for a flight back to Iran, her sister wrote.
Meet Narges Bayani. A Ph.D student in NYU. Also detained in JFK. Read her sister’s heartbreaking post. #MuslimBan pic.twitter.com/m38vMFsuDM
— Bahman Kalbasi (@BahmanKalbasi) January 29, 2017
When the school learned of Bayani's detention, they reached out to Rep. Jerrold Nadler and Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, who attempted to intervene on the student's behalf, NYU spokesman John Beckman said.
The NYU Law School's Immigrant Rights Clinic also got involved, and was able to secure Bayani's entry back into the U.S. by Sunday morning, Beckman said.
The Immigrant Rights Clinic is poised to announce a special program in partnership with the law firm WilmerHale "to assist members of the NYU community who are at risk of being deported," Beckman said.
"We are prepared to deal with additional instances as they arise on a case-by-case basis," Beckman said.
"NYU's primary concern is the welfare of its students, faculty, researchers, and employees affected by Friday's immigration order," Beckman added. "We have written to those members of the NYU community who might be subject to the order to let them know the University supports them, to highlight the risk they would be taking if they choose to travel outside the U.S., and to tell them that we have arranged special informational sessions for them with Law School faculty who specialize in immigration and administrators from our global programs."
Over the weekend, NYU President Andrew Hamilton wrote a letter to the NYU community reiterating his earlier promises to protect the school's immigrant population.
