This travel ban has quietly reshaped the personal and scientific futures of many Iranian scholars, including my own. After a full year of planning for a U.S. postdoc, tens of hours of interview preparation, fellowship applications, constant monitoring of whether Harvard’s legal battles would lead to F or J visa revocations, stress over grant freezes, and endless immigration paperwork, the sudden travel ban announced on June 4, 2025 upended everything. After the draft list for the new travel ban appeared in a New York Times article in March, we rushed to reschedule my PhD defense as early as possible. I ended up preparing for my defense in just two weeks in an attempt to get ahead of the ban, which turned out to be pointless. The ban was announced only weeks after my interview at the U.S. Consulate in Toronto, and I have not heard back since. This ban is far more expansive than the one in 2017 and includes no exemptions for F or J visas. When I asked about the possibility of an exemption letter, I was told it was unlikely to help, as this administration appears to view science as no longer being in the U.S. national interest. As @genophoria points out, media coverage and the political response around this ban have been surprisingly limited. I wish more senior academics would speak up. Today, many Iranian and other international students and scholars live in a state of permanent uncertainty, where a single policy change can freeze their careers or force them to leave everything behind. Many do not even feel safe sharing their experiences publicly. In the current political climate for immigrants in the U.S., it is heartbreaking to admit that I feel almost relieved I did not end up there. When you are living with constant fear about your status, buried in paperwork, and know your life can be overturned overnight, how much bandwidth remains to do actual science?