USENIX Reaction to Presidential Executive Order “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry To The United States”

USENIX, the Advanced Computing Systems Association, strongly objects to President Trump’s Executive Order “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry To The United States,” signed on January 27, 2017, which suspends the issuance of visas and other immigration benefits—including entry into the United States—to nationals of “countries of particular concern.”

USENIX organizes conferences that are the essential meeting grounds for discussion of the most advanced research in all aspects of computing systems. This Executive Order threatens the mission of USENIX by limiting the ability of non-U.S citizens, including engineers, system administrators, scientists, researchers, technicians, academics, and students, to attend our conferences and collaborate on the latest research. This collaboration benefits not only our members, but also industry, society at large, and the U.S. government itself.

USENIX is committed to promoting open access to technical knowledge, while fostering diversity and the next generation of researchers. We have always welcomed members and conference attendees of diverse backgrounds, and will continue to do so. We invite authors (travel_authors@usenix.org), presenters (travel_presenters@usenix.org), or organizers (travel_organizers@usenix.org) who are unable or unwilling to travel to our upcoming conferences under the current circumstances to contact USENIX to discuss how they can continue to contribute to the community. If you are unable to attend one of our events due to this Executive Order, we encourage you to speak out via Twitter (@usenix).