Jamal Abdi, policy director of NIAC, said his group was surprised by how many programs and students the ban would have affected at UMass Amherst. “The scope is definitely surprising,” Abdi said in an interview with ABC News before the ban was overturned. “This is the problem with a university attempting to implement a law that the State Department is in charge of.” Abdi later said his group members “welcome UMass’s reversal. We think they’ve done the right thing.”