Flaws In the Travel Ban

THE NEW TERMS OF THE BAN:

• Citizens of Chad, Yemen, Syria, and Libya with business and tourist visas are outright affected by the ban.
• Immigrants from Somalia are banned outright, but the non-immigrants seeking business and tourist visas will have to undergo strict screenings.
• Government officials of Venezuela along with their families are banned, whereas the nation’s citizens holding visas are subjected to additional screenings.
• Citizens of Iran are barred from entering the US, unless they are students or visitors with valid visas.
• Citizens of North Korea also face an outright ban.

A FEW EXEMPTIONS:

• Foreign nationals of the banned countries who have permanent US residency are exempted from this immigration policy.
• Foreign nationals who have already been granted asylum by the United States as refugees have been exempted from being banned from the country for the time being.
• Diplomatic visa holders are exempted from the travel ban.
• In a case by case process, foreign nationals who are issued a waiver either from the Customs and Board Patrol or the States Department are exempted from the ban.
• Foreign nationals with dual citizenship (with countries not on the ban list) are exempt from the ban unless they travel from the other passport.

FLAWS OF THE NEW IMMIGRATION POLICY:

Despite Trump’s concern with America’s security, countries that are internationally recognized for their terrorist presence (Afghanistan, Pakistan, UAE, and Saudi Arabia) are not included in the ban list. Secondly, it seems that the Trump administration has attempted to wash off its hands from any accusation of a religious discrimination by including Non-Muslim countries like North Korea and Venezuela in its ban list. The third version of the travel ban does not have an end date unlike the first to versions of the proposed ban on Muslim predominant countries. It will be in effect till the federal government chooses to remove or add countries from it. This ban has resulted in an immediate and direct impact on US nationals, as it is still unclear as in when will these people be able to bring their families to the US to even visit them. These people wait to know when and how things will take a positive turn for them and their families.

The immigration policy is having a devastating effect upon immigrants with long term ties to the US. US deportation law disregards immigrant rights in cases where many immigrants are even denied the chance to secure a hearing for themselves. The Trump administration with the Congress needs to remove such foul tendencies in the immigration policy. US immigration law needs a reform in terms of issuing a fair deportation. In order to acquire the status of a fair immigration law, the authorities need to individually weigh the immigrant’s ties to US against the government’s interest in deporting the individual. As the Trump administration is showing anti – immigrant tendencies, it is important that the legal system remains fair with changing immigration policies.