WT - Trump punishes sanctuary countries, halts visas for nations that refuse to cooperate on deportations

Stephen Dinan at The Washington Times ("hard-hitting news and fearless journalism") explained recent visa sanctions against four countries.

Money quote(s):

"Sanctions have been triggered only twice before — once in 2001 against Guyana and again late last year against Gambia. In both instances, they produced quick results. Guyana moved within months to issue travel documents to take back 112 of the 113 deportees stuck in a backlog."

Limiting the ability of foreign officials and their families' ability to visit the U.S. is what CAA likes to call "The Miami Sanction."

For much of Central America and the Caribbean, Miami provides Third World countries with a First World "capital city."  It's where they send their wives to shop and their kids to school.  Los Angeles and New York City fill similar roles for different regions as London and Paris do for much of the developing world in that hemisphere.  There are direct air-links to those cities from many Third World countries.

The "Miami Sanction" puts an exquisite pressure on foreign government officials.

"State Department officials said the sanctions begin Wednesday, halting issuance of at least some categories of visas to would-be travelers from Cambodia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Eritrea.

“The Secretary of State has ordered consular officers in Eritrea, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia to implement visa restrictions effective September 13, 2017,” the department said in a statement provided to The Washington Times. “The Secretary determined the categories of visa applicants subject to these restrictions on a country-by-country basis.”

The law allows for all visas to be halted to any country that refuses cooperation, but the department decided to impose less-draconian penalties in each of the four cases.

In Cambodia, only top diplomats and their families will be denied temporary tourism or business visas. In Eritrea, the U.S. Embassy will stop issuing business and tourist visas to all citizens.

In Guinea, government officials and family members will be denied business, tourist, and student and exchange program visas. In Sierra Leone, the government’s diplomats and immigration officials will be denied business and tourist visas."

Interestingly, the visa sanctions against the four countries show a graduated, even nuanced, set of penalties:

Eritrea - no B1/B2 visas for anyone, no how, no way;

Guinea - no B1/B2, F, or J visas for government officials and their families;

Sierra Leone - no B1/B2 visas for either diplomats or immigration officials;

Cambodia - no B1B2 visas for top diplomats and their families.

(CAA would love to know what factors resulted in this range of sanctions, but it's the kind of inside-baseball that only comes to light decades later in some diplomat's small-batch memoir.)

WP - U.S. Embassy stops issuing nonimmigrant visas to Russians as diplomatic standoff deepens

Andrew Roth at the Washington Post ("Democracy Dies in Darkness") offered a well-written article.

Money quote(s):

"The decision comes after Russia demanded that the U.S. mission in the country reduce its staff from more than 1,200 employees to 455, the same size as the Russian diplomatic mission in the United States. The American Embassy’s announcement will likely mean delays for the hundreds of thousands of Russians who apply for nonimmigrant visas to the United States each year."

Wait times will go up, and keep going up, and applicants will have to travel much farther for their interviews.

"Senior Russian lawmakers in the Duma and the Federation Council on Monday suggested a “mirror” response that could affect Americans seeking Russian visas. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he believed that by slowing the visa process the United States may be trying to “provoke discontent of Russian citizens against the actions of the Russian government,” but Lavrov also appeared to rule out a similar response by the Russian government."

In a functioning representative democracy, like the U.S. por ejemplo, that sort of "discontent" means writing your congressional representative or even the White House, and telling them to do something about it.

What that means in Russia, CAA can't predict.

"With a Sept. 1 deadline to cut more than 750 staff positions looming, the embassy announced on Monday that it would suspend all nonimmigrant visa applications and interviews until then, and that afterward it would suspend U.S. visa interviews at the American consulates in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Vladivostok — effectively forcing Russians across the vast country to travel to Moscow for a U.S. visa."

A staff cut of this magnitude (roughly 60 percent) and including U.S. staff who have to be packed-up and relocated back to (usually) Washington means a huge (if temporary) ramp-up in administrative and logistical tasks, which is why non-essential services get dropped even before the September deadline.

Read the whole thing here.

First glance at the proposed RAISE Act.

RAISE = Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy

You can read the proposed legislation at Sen. Cotton's web page.

A couple of things caught my notice beyond the obvious things which are summarized, also by Sen. Cotton, here.

First, the obvious:

 - Diversity Visa (DV) program eliminated;

 - Refugees capped at 50,000 per annum;

 - Spouses and minor children still eligible to immigrate but not other extended family members;

 - New non-immigrant visa category, renewable every five years, for elderly parents;

 - Grandfathers pending immigrant visa cases for eliminated categories but only if applied for before the introduction of this bill and scheduled to travel within one year of the bill's passage;

 - Introduces a points-based system to replace current employment-based visa categories;

 - Makes naturalization of an immigrant conditional on the immigrant's sponsor having reimbursed any benefits received by the immigrant during the sponsorship.

There are a bunch of little editorial points, basically housekeeping and neatening-up the existing statute, plus replacing "Attorney General" with "Secretary of Homeland Security" in a few places where this should already have happened since INS (among other things) moved from DOJ to DHS.

CAA is agnostic about eliminating the DV visa.  It's probably served its purpose if its purpose was to, er, diversify the flow of immigrants to the U.S., given how long it's been running.  So declare it a success and move on.  Since immigrant communities now exist (shout-out to Minnesota!) from lots of places (shout out to Somalia!) where few-to-no immigrants used to come from, "chain" immigration from those places will undoubtedly continue, although significantly diminished due to the elimination of non-immediate relative visa categories.

The number of refugees the U.S. takes-in is at the discretion of the president, under current law.  Fifty-thousand is at the high end of the numbers the U.S. has tended to receive over time and, frankly, if there should be a time and situation where president decides a number exceeding that should be admitted then he or she can always ask Congress for a higher number that year (and or succeeding years), and make the case for it.  It's not like trying to pass a Constitutional amendment, and if the need is compelling perhaps even congressmen and senators can be persuaded.

Eliminating the family-based visa categories beyond spouses and minor children is a big deal.  It will drastically clamp-down on "chain immigration" over time, which I think is the point.  I think there's room for improvement on how it's implemented, purely on the basis of fairness, which I'll address below.

Something I noticed in the bill which I haven't seen commented upon elsewhere is changing the age for minor children from 21 to 18 years.  It's a fair point, we consider children in most respects to be adults and on their own, more-or-less, at age 18.  It also doesn't shut the door to the 18+ year-old children from applying for student visas and coming over when the rest of their family immigrates; in fact, that would make a lot of sense, assuming the families have the resources to support it.  They would then, as they finished their higher (and higher) education be free to apply to stay under the points-based system being introduced by this bill.  

For those cases where the families don't have the resources to put their children into colleges and universities, what I'd like to see is a conditional status created that would allow the 18-21 year-old children, assuming they were otherwise qualified, to enlist in the military or naval services so they could qualify for citizenship on their own efforts.  Just a suggestion.

The five-year renewable non-immigrant visa for elderly parents makes a lot of sense and I'm not going to rake it over here.  CAA has issued immigrant visas to plenty of people who would fit into this category.  It's certainly an interesting idea and open to debate.

The points-based immigration system designed to replace our existing employment-based petitions is a system similar to that used by both Canada and Australia, two immigrant-friendly countries much like our own in many respects.  There's lots of room for haggling over how the points might be allocated, but there's also no reason it couldn't be revisited in the future to adjust how points are earned.

The issue of grandfathering pending immigrant cases where the visa category is being eliminated touches a nerve for me.  The numbers of visas for non-immediate relatives has an annual numeric cap, apportioned by country.  There are some countries (Mexico and Philippines spring readily to mind) where the wait is decades long.  These are people who, dutifully complying with our laws, have been patiently waiting to legally immigrate to the U.S., sometimes literally dying before their "number" comes up.  The way I read the draft bill, the first cut-off is that they have to have filed their petition no later than the when this bill was introduced.  The second cut-off is that they have to be scheduled arrive in the U.S. no later than one year after (or the day before one year) after the bill is passed into law.

What I don't see is the elimination of the numerical limitation, so that those waiting all these years for their turn, actually get their turn.  Perhaps I missed it?

CAA is all about legal immigrants lawfully complying with our immigration laws.  So it goes down sideways for us on the implementing side of the equation to be breaking faith with those who have been earnestly attempting to comply with our laws.  CAA is a big fan of people who comply with U.S. immigration laws; CAA believes people who start out by complying with U.S. immigration laws are more likely to continue being law-abiding than people who begin by ignoring or violating our laws.  Just sayin'.

CAA would like to see those waiting to obey the law get their chance to do so.  Let the bill be amended to let DHS and USCIS estimate annually how many of the pending cases they can process, irrespective of what the annual numerical limit has been, and then let USCIS and the State Department process those cases, until the backlog is gone.  Finished.  Finito.  Fertig.

re: "Department Of State Sponsoring Visa Fraud"

Federale ("That Is The Sound Of Inevitability") maintained a certain point of view.

Money quote(s):

"The Department of State (DOS) continues its campaign to undermine and unconstitutionally violate the Defense Of Marriage Act (DOMA). Hillary Clinton authorized the DOS to be the sponsor for non-immigrant visas in the J-1 category for the non-resident aliens who are having sex with a DOS employee.

The J-1 visa is not for people having sex with a DOS employee, but for cultural and education exchange. At no point was its purpose to aid government employees to engage in sex outside of marriage."

Sec. Clinton has been pretty forward-leaning on the issues related to gay marriage.

What Federale is talking about is using the J-1 non-immigrant visa category for non-U.S. citizen same-sex partners of American diplomats, so that they may accompany their diplomat spouses when they receive domestic assignments in the U.S.

Not every U.S. diplomat has a same-sex partner. Many have spouses whose marriages are recognized in every state in the union.

"Nor was it designed to avoid obtaining an immigrant visa as the pretend spouse of an American citizen. Remember it was created by a Congress of white, heterosexual, males who never contemplation its use as a substitute for homosexual marriage."

Since most FSOs will not spend more than five years (at most) at a stretch in the U.S. (it's the foreign service, after all), it's not really an immigrant visa.

This move is something of a stop-gap measure, getting a little bit ahead of the legislation (or judicial activism) on the matter.

There's also something of a reciprocity issue at play here, since other countries will allow unmarried domestic partners, including same-sex spouses, to accompany our (and their) diplomats.

7/28

re: "Obama Pays Ransom For American Diplomat"

Federale ("Federal Service Guarantees Citizenship") explains why this was not necessarily a good idea.

Money quote(s):

"(S)ubmission to Islamist and Pakistani tribal traditions have superceded international treaties that have been in effect for years. Not to mention the hundreds of years of customary law that granted imunity to diplomats. All this thrown under the bus to promote sharia law and the supremacy of Islam in the world.

This incident could have been easily ended by the U.S. informing the Pakistani government that their holding of Davis was what it was, an act of war. The U.S. could have seized a Pakistani diplomat in retaliation, cut off military and economic aid, stopped issuing immigrant and non-immigrant visas to Pakistanis, canceling all outstanding visas or expelling some or all Pakistani diplomats from the U.S. Anyone of these actions would have forced the Pakistani government to comply with international law"

At this point, I suspect that paying Wergeld was the least bad of the various options available.

JO - Extradition sidebars

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer

Extradition sidebars


HENLEY MORGAN


Wednesday, April 07, 2010


As every great leader knows, how he fights the war determines how he wins and keeps the peace. President John Fitzgerald Kennedy understood this well. In the Cuban Missile Crisis he risked nuclear war to defend a principle.

Read the whole column here.

Snippet(s):

"Prime Minister Bruce Golding is in the fight of his life, standing as he is against the might and power of the United States over an extradition request for Christopher "Dudus" Coke."

"Without getting directly involved in the imbroglio or predicting what the eventual outcome will be, there are a few sidebars to the main event that are deserving of commentary. Here they are:

*No Jamaican prime minister is assured the support of the citizens of this country if he takes a decision or pursues a course of action that puts in jeopardy the highly favoured and much-desired multiple entry visa, green card, barrel or remittance. This "love" of America and things American transcends political affiliation. When Prime Minister PJ Patterson took the principled decision to allow President Aristide of Haiti brief sojourn in Jamaica on his way to exile, the radio talk shows lit up with calls from concerned citizens fearful that in offending America the prime minister had exposed Jamaica to the danger faced by a cockroach refereeing a chicken fight. This attitude that says America is always right puts Jamaica in a permanent subservient position."

&

"* It is my humble opinion that this display of "greater affection" for what America offers than for our own principles feeds into the old "banana republic" syndrome. In such a scenario the Americans are emboldened to speak of our leaders and country in the derogatory tones of the 2010 US State Department's International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. I hold no brief for the prime minister of Jamaica. In those private, heated political debates that we Jamaicans like to have, I may even express some views of his stewardship that are not in the least flattering. But if anybody from outside Jamaica touches him, he is my prime minister and as long as he stands on principles I am rushing to his defence."

_____
hmorgan@cwjamaica.com

re: "Abdulmutallab (TWA "Christmas Bomber") Had a Visa Denial Reversed"

TSB at The Skeptical Bureaucrat ("Giving my fellow Americans the view from my cubicle") has "about the complicated visa history of the "Christmas Bomber," young Mister Abdulmutallab of Nigeria."

Money quote(s):

"The bottom line is that the 18 year-old Abdulmutallab committed a non-material error on his first visa application, which was forgiven based upon his lack of willful misrepresentation and his strong ties to Nigeria, i.e., his Daddy's $$$$$$$. This all happened before he was radicalized and became a security threat."

Be sure to read the commentary; it's right on point.

JO - Revoke visas of politicians, unscrupulous businessmen

From my archive of press clippings:

Jamaica Observer


Revoke visas of politicians, unscrupulous businessmen

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Dear Editor,


The stink of Jamaica's corruption, to which most at home have grown accustomed, has finally begun to wrinkle the noses of our neighbours. While out of one side of our mouth we bemoan the depths to which we have sunk and wonder how we got this far, out of the other side we will call hellfire to rain down on anyone, any agency that dares to point out our shortcomings. Some of us will continue pretending we don't know the reason for Operation Visa Revocation, which seems to be the latest US "tough love" strategy designed to steer us off the path of delinquency and criminality.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"Well, since we have been afraid to tag our big fish and call out our "players", the US is tagging them for us, and not even our duly elected leaders can take the pressure. After hearing about "the list", I can only imagine the mounting stress that some folks are going through, whether they have green card, citizenship or non-immigrant visa, since they don't have a clue what the US knows about the shady activities in their past, and if they will be disgraced."

"The mystery police superintendent whose visa has been revoked is said to have been under investigation for corruption, yet he is squealing for his lawyer to negotiate with the US regarding his visa."

"By now those in high places should realise that the US visa is not their right, and that their privileged status in that banana republic will not afford them any special privileges in the republic to the north. But why is the identity of the superintendent being protected by the media? Would his life be in danger if he were exposed?

The media should not aid in obstructing the lesson to be learnt from all this: one vital to other members of the force and the civilian population who think of the US as their alternate option when they run afoul of the law at home and need a hideout."

"The US is doing a great service for our nation."

&

"It is my fervent hope that the US will revoke the visa of every last politician and unscrupulous businessman in that miserable little island, until they realise it's all they have, and who knows, perhaps they'll begin to treat the citizens and the country with more respect."

Hunter Gray
Populierenlaan
Krimpen a/d IJssel
Netherlands
grayhunter19@yahoo.com

ITN - Online forms for US visas

From my archive of press clippings:

International The News

Online forms for US visas

Friday, February 19, 2010


Islamabad


The US Embassy, Islamabad, and US Consulate, Karachi, will require non-immigrant visa applicants to use a new web-based application form starting February 22, 2010, says a press release. The new DS-160 application form incorporates all existing applications into one interactive, online form, replacing the forms that currently make up the Electronic Visa Application and Parental Information Forms.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The new DS-160 form demonstrates the US commitment to improving the efficiency and accuracy of the visa process to better serve our applicants."

SN - Ask the consul. Summer Travel

From my archive of press clippings:

Stabroek News

Ask the consul


By Stabroek staff June 25, 2009 in Daily, Features


Summer Travel

Installment Eighty – Sixth

Q: I am interested in visiting the United States this summer, how do I apply for a U.S. visitor visa?

Read the whole article here.

TTOI - Past passport fraud does man in during US visa interview

From my archive of press clippings:

The Times of India


Past passport fraud does man in during US visa interview


Selvaraj, TNN 2 August 2009, 05:09am IST

CHENNAI: A 47-year-old man from Bangalore, who travelled to the US in 2001 under a fake name and passport was arrested on Friday while trying to travel to the US again-- this time using his real name and passport!

Syed Mohammad had applied for a nine-month US visa.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"While appearing for the visa interview at the US Consulate in Chennai, he claimed that he wanted to start a business with his friend in the US.

While scrutinizing his documents, the officials found that another person named Syed Sheik who had travelled to US in 2001 had a striking similarity to Mohammad.

The photographs looked almost identical.

On interrogation, Mohammad confessed to the officials that he had travelled to US in January 2001 with a fake passport and returned to Bangalore in February 2009 using the same passport."

&

"US Consulate officials cancelled his visa permit and imposed a life ban on him.

Following his confession, Consulate officials on Friday night handed him over to the Royapettah police station.

US regional security officer Ramrez lodged a complaint at the police and following this, police registered a case under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC and arrested him. He was remanded in judicial custody after being produced before a magistrate court on Saturday."

TJP - The Travel Adviser: Entering the US? Don't always trust your agent.

The Jerusalem Post

The Travel Adviser: Entering the US? Don't always trust your agent.

Apr 4, 2009 21:33


By MARK FELDMAN


Often this column lends itself to criticism from many sources. Airlines complain that I'm too hard on them and readers comment that I'm too easy on the airlines. Now my profession itself comes under attack from a disgruntled traveler.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The ability to enter the US on a Tourist Visa is a burdensome process. Those fortunate enough to hold a European passport, for example, must check prior to their trip that their passport meets the latest requirements.

Furthermore, the US has recently demanded that passengers holding a European passport register online before they fly. This too has had passengers at Ben-Gurion Airport befuddled as they seek some Internet connection to comply."

_____


Mark Feldman is the CEO of Ziontours, Jerusalem.For questions and comments e-mail him at mark.feldman@ziontours.co.il

AVB - Nurses may get smoother visa route to the U.S.

American Visa Bureau

Nurses may get smoother visa route to the U.S.


03 March 2009


In an attempt to plug the growing shortage of nurses in America, the Government is considering the introduction of a bill to allow for a special category for registered nurses.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"According to the Times of India, the non-immigrant category of visa for registered nurses would speed up the processing of American visas for nurses, allowing them to move to America more seamlessly."

T&TE - Pregnant? No US visa

From my archive of press clippings:

Trinidad & Tobago Express

Pregnant? No US visa


Camille Bethel cbethel@trinidadexpress.com

Monday, December 7th 2009

Non-immigrant visa officers working out of the United States Embassy in Port of Spain were being trained, up to February of this year, to refuse visas to certain groups of applicants.
Among those who had virtually no chance of getting a visa were pregnant women, women who already had a child in the US, and locals going to America for job training.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"The actions of the US Embassy officials were illegal, according to an internal inspection done by the US State Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The visa officers were told to follow US visa application laws.

The investigation was done over a two-week period from late January. The inspection took place shortly after former US ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago Roy Austin completed his tenure."

"The report detailed the daily operations of the embassy and commented on its strengths and weaknesses. The reported stated, ’Consular section management currently teaches non-immigrant visa officers to refuse visas to certain categories of applicants who should not be refused under visa law.’

It stated, ’Of special sensitivity are routine refusals for newly hired employees of known local and American companies going to the United States for training. These knee-jerk refusals have damaged relations with those companies, many of which do daily business with the embassy.’"

&

"’However, section 214(b) of the Immigration and Nationality Act clearly states that, ’every alien’ shall be presumed to be an immigrant until he establishes to the satisfaction of the consular officer, at the time of application for admission, that he is entitled to a non-immigrant status’, the investigators stated.

’Further,... if you determine an applicant is qualified under the law for a visa, that decision should apply to future trips as well. Suspicion that an alien, after admission, may be swayed to remain in the United States because of more favourable living conditions is not a sufficient ground to refuse a visa as long as the alien’s current intent is to return to a foreign residence,’ the report stated.

The inspectors stated that immigration officers should issue a visa based on an applicant’s travel intentions and not what the application might do in future."