On the afternoon of September 24th, The Office of the Press Secretary released a proclamation enhancing vetting capabilities and processes for detecting the entry of terrorists into the United States applying to Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen, and Somalia.
This outcome is a result of the executive order 13780 of March 6, 2017, consisting in a worldwide investigation from the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General to determine which countries represented a threat to the safety of the U.S. and whether additional information would be required before citizens from those countries could enter the U.S.. According to the proclamation, The Secretary of State discussed safety measures with many of these countries which led to positive results. Never the less, out of the 200 countries evaluated, 7 remain “deficient in respect to their identity-management and information-sharing capabilities, protocols, and practices”, 16 have been categorized as “inadequate” and 31 as “at risk to become inadequate”. While Iraq did not met the conditions to be considered “inadequate”, entry restrictions and limitations under this proclamation are not warranted. It was stated in the document, that the Government of the United States of America encourages for these countries to address these issues in order for the restrictions to be removed or relaxed.
Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet.https://t.co/KJ886okyfC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 24, 2017
These are the important keys:
- Any lawful permanent resident will not be affected.
- Any foreign national from these countries with asylum will not be affected.
- For all but one of these countries (Venezuela), the entry of immigrants will be restricted.
- For some countries, all nonimmigrants entry will be restricted.
- No visa granted before the effective date (October 18, 12:01AM ET) will be revoked.
- You will not be affected by Dual-nationalities while traveling with a passport not pertaining to the countries in this list.
- It will not affect you if you’ve been granted work or study visas and you were out of territory by the date.
- Any individual whose visa was marked revoked or marked canceled as a result of Executive Order 13769 of January 27, 2017, shall be entitled to a travel document confirming that the individual is permitted to travel to the United States and seek entry under the terms and conditions of the visa marked revoked or marked canceled
- Entry of nationals of these countries of identified concern will be suspended and for the following reasons:
A.Chad, Lybian and Yemen: Although allies in counter terrorism, they do not share properly public-safety and terrorism-related information and do not satisfy identity-management. Therefore, the entry as immigrants and non immigrants holder of business and tourist visas (B-1, B-2) are suspeded.
B.Iran: It has been designated as a sponsor of terrorism, as source of terrorist threats , does not receive nationals subject to order of removal and does not cooperate in identifying security risks. Immigrant and nonimmigrants are suspended, except those with studed visas (F and M) and exchange visas (J), but will go through certain requirements.
C. Syria: As Iran, it has been defined as sponsor of terrorism, source of terrorist threats and does not cooperate identifying security risks, however, all immigrants and nonimmigrants have been suspended.
D. North Korea: Does not cooperate in any respect. The entry of immigrants and nonimmigrants is suspended.
E. Venezuela: Its government it is not cooperative in verifying wether citizens pose national security threats, does not share terrorist-related and public-safety information and does not attend orders of removal from their nationals. Therefore, the restrictions will ONLY be focused on Venezuelan government officials and their immediate families, because they are responsible for these issues. They will not be able to enter as nonimmigrants on business and tourist visas (B-1, B2). Relating to nationals of Venezuela, they will go through appropiate additional measures to ensure traveler information is up to date. Interesting note: Venezuela is the only non-muslim majority country included in a Ban, besides North Korea. Important note: The population itself is not participant in anyway in acts of terrorism but the Government of Venezuela keeps strong connections to it, for instance, they’ve granted plenty of Venezuelan passports and ID’s to terrorists, identifying them as nationals of Venezuela while they have probably never even set foot in the country in the first place. This is why they got restricted and Venezuelans are thrilled about it.
F. Somalia: Fails to manage identity defficiencies, terrorist threats emanate from such and it is a terrorist safe haven.Their entrance as immigrants is suspended. Non-immigrants will be subject to additional scrutinity.
This new travel ban has represented a significant move forward in regards of the last one: it added non-muslim majority countries also representing a threat (in contrast with the last one, that only inclused muslim majority countries), it removed Sudan from restrictions, its conditions have been more flexible allowing in some cases students and non-immigrants to come back and forth and it offers a number of waivers. Yet, still, many innocent people will be affected by such.
