The Guardian: Iranian Students Barred From US: Lost Money, Broken Dreams, No Answers

They had been accepted to prestigious postgraduate programs, many in California, but they got no further than the airport…

… Aghajohari was one of about 20 students from Iran who were barred from boarding flights to start graduate programs in the United States last month, the majority at campuses in the University of California system. The students were all traveling with valid F-1 student visas issued by the US state department. Most of them were turned away at airports in Iran, while a few were prevented from boarding connecting flights out of Doha and Istanbul. Their cases made headlines around the world….

… What resembles an unwritten extension of the travel ban slammed the doors on students amid escalating tensions between the US and Iran. Lawyers and students wondered if the sudden denials were an act of political retaliation. “I can only speculate that the reason may have more to do with the deteriorating state of US-Iran relations than with anything in the students’ backgrounds,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, a law professor at Cornell University….

The New York Times: Judges Strike Several Blows to Trump Immigration Policies

President Trump’s immigration agenda ran into legal blockades in courts around the country on Friday as judges in four states barred his administration from trying to withhold green cards from people who use public benefits and rejected his plan to divert funds to erect a border wall….

…“The court rulings today represent at least a temporary setback in the Trump administration’s attacks on both legal and illegal immigrants,” Steve Yale-Loehr, an immigration professor at Cornell Law School, said of the day’s decisions. “Ultimately, I predict these issues will go all the way to the Supreme Court.”…

CNN: Supreme Court Wrestles with Immigration-Related Case as Sotomayor Breaks the New 2-minute Rule

“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander,” said Stephen Yale-Loehr, an immigration professor at Cornell Law School. “If the Supreme Court rules that federal government no longer has sole responsibility for regulating immigration, lower courts may uphold pro-immigrant or sanctuary or non-cooperation polices enacted by states and localities,” he said.