Biotechnology executives say Trump’s travel ban is scaring off scientists and doctors

Biotechnology executives have gone their way to express their sentiments regarding US President Donald Trump’s new executive order on immigration. Executives said the new EO is scaring away scientists, doctors and would-be entrepreneurs.

A letter from 165 chief executives published in Nature Biotechnology states that global employees interpret the core message of the travel ban as “America is no longer welcoming of any immigrants, whatsoever.” The employees said they construe the ban as such even though it is currently aimed at only seven countries.

Scientists, doctors and would-be entrepreneurs fear that the US president’s executive order could be issued to more countries. These groups are afraid that they will be discriminated due to their religion and the nation where they come from.

The biotech executives said the latest executive order on immigration makes people lose their confidence that they are truly welcome in the US. Staff are not pushing with their vacation plans outside the county as they are afraid that they will have a hard time coming back to America. For some, they would rather live outside the US permanently if they do not feel free to travel.

“Several among us have heard from employees about their deportation fears, how they do not feel comfortable leaving the country on business or how they now feel cut off from their family abroad,” the biotech executives wrote. But they have also clarified that they have nothing against the right of the US to secure its borders.

Dr Suha Abushamma from the Cleveland Clinic has already felt the effects of the travel ban. The Sudanese citizen was initially stopped from returning to the United States. She was able to come back to the US on Monday after Judge James L Robart has temporarily blocked the travel ban.

Eileen Sheil, a spokeswoman for the clinic, has explained how they will be affected by the immigration order. “Our residency program alone has people from all over,” she said.

Sheil said they want all of their people. The clinic wants the best and the brightest regardless of where they come from.

The biotech industry depends largely on foreign-born employees and investors. In a 2014 study, more than half of the 69,000 biomedical researchers in the United States were from other countries. Trump’s travel ban denies citizens of seven countries which are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen to enter the United States.