Case prof awaits visa to return from Panama

The Panama native applied for a visa renewal three months ago.

CLEVELAND (AP) — Classes of a popular professor at Case Western Reserve University have been canceled while students wait for her to get permission to return from Panama.

Marixa Lasso has been stuck in Panama for three months because her visa is being held up at the U.S. Embassy in Panama City.

Lasso said she went home at the end of the spring semester and on July 12 reported to the U.S. Embassy to renew her visa, a routine she expected to take about 20 minutes. Her name caused a concern.

She said she was told there would be some additional procedures and a consular official would call her.

“I still have no idea what’s going on,” Lasso said by phone from Panama on Tuesday.

A spokesman for the U.S. State Department, which issues visas, said the government does not comment on specific visa cases.

Lasso said she does not know what she could have done or said to be deemed a security risk. Her area of expertise is urban culture and racism in 19th-century Latin America. She said she belongs to no controversial groups.

Very concerned

About 20 faculty members and students gathered Wednesday to discuss Lasso’s situation and resolved to send letters to Gov. Ted Strickland, Ohio’s senators, local congressmen and the State Department.

“Everyone’s very, very concerned,” said Jonathan Sadowsky, chairman of the history department at Case. “She’s a part of our academic community and we expect to have her here.”

Lasso joined Case’s history department three years ago as an assistant professor of history specializing in Latin America, and became one of its rising stars.

“She’s an outstanding scholar, she’s a great teacher, and she’s a really nice person,” said Cyrus Taylor, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Case.

A Fulbright scholarship brought Lasso to America 14 years ago. She earned advanced degrees and taught at California State University, Los Angeles, before joining the Case faculty.

She lives and works in America on a 0-1 visa, a temporary visa designed for foreigners of extraordinary skill and reputation.

Suspect a pattern

On campus, some fear Lasso is part of a growing pattern of denying foreign scholars visas with little or no explanation.

Last year, a renowned music scholar from Great Britain, Nalini Ghuman, was turned away at the San Francisco airport without explanation as she attempted to return to her job at Mills College in Oakland, Calif.

The University of Nebraska had to sue the Department of Homeland Security to obtain a visa for Waskar Ari, a historian from Bolivia blocked from entering the county for two years.

State Department spokesman Karl Buckworth said he knows of no directive calling for extra scrutiny of foreign scholars.

“Consular affairs offices have to make these decisions,” Buckworth said. “They take a look at everybody who applies for a visa and puts them through a process mandated by law.”