When details leaked earlier this week about a spate of immigration-related executive orders from President Donald Trump, much public discussion focused on a 30-day ban on new visas for citizens from seven \u201cterror-prone\u201d countries.
\nBut the order signed yesterday by Trump is actually more severe, increasing the ban to 90 days. And its effects could extend well beyond preventing newcomers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, from entering the U.S., lawyers consulted by ProPublica said.
\nIt\u2019s also expected to have substantial effects on hundreds of thousands of people from these countries who already live in the U.S. under green cards or on temporary student or employee visas.
\nSince the order\u2019s travel ban applies to all \u201caliens\u201d 2014 a term that encompasses anyone who isn\u2019t an American citizen 2014 it could bar those with current visas or even green cards from returning to the U.S. from trips abroad, said Stephen Legomsky, a former chief counsel to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services under President Obama.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s extraordinarily cruel,\u201d he said.
\nThe order bans the \u201centry\u201d of foreigners from those countries and specifically exempts from the ban those who hold certain diplomatic visas.
\nNot included in the exemption, however, are those who hold long-term temporary visas 2014 such as students or employees 2014 who have the right to live in the United States for years at a time, as well as to travel abroad and back as they please.
\n\u201cIf applied literally, this provision would bar even those visitors who had made temporary trips abroad, for example a student who went home on winter break and is now returning,\u201d Legomsky said on Friday evening executive order.
\nTrump made \u201cextreme vetting\u201d of foreigners a cornerstone of his campaign, particularly those from countries that are predominantly Muslim and that he considers hostile to the U.S.
\n\u201cI\u2019m establishing new vetting measures to keep radical Islamic terrorists out of the United States of America. We don\u2019t want them here,\u201d Trump said this afternoon, describing the intention of the executive order. \u201cWe want to ensure that we are not admitting to our country the very threats our soldiers are fighting overseas.\u201d
\nTrump signed the directive just before 5 p.m. but it took the White House almost three hours to release the actual text.
\nAbout 25,000 citizens from the seven countries specified in Trump\u2019s ban have been issued student or employment visas in the past three years, according to Department of Homeland Security reports.
\nOn top of that, almost 500,000 people from the seven countries have received green cards in the past decade, allowing them to live and work in the United States indefinitely. Legally speaking, green card holders are considered aliens. While lawyers are unsure if they would actually be barred from reentering the U.S. if they have traveled abroad, they conceded it\u2019s a possibility.
\nThe White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment asking for clarification on the meaning of the executive order.
\nCitizens of Iran and Iraq far outnumber those from the other five countries among green card and visa holders. In the past 10 years, Iranian and Iraqi citizens have received over 250,000 green cards.
\nIran also has the 11th most students in the U.S. among foreign nations, according to the Institute of International Education\u2019s Open Doors report, which tracks the demographics of international students.
\n\u201cWe are inundated with calls and questions of how this is going to affect people,\u201d said Jamal Abdi, policy director for the National Iranian American Council, an organization that advocates for better relations between Iranian and American people.
\nAbdi is concerned the temporary ban will become permanent. The order says the 90-day ban is meant to allow the U.S. and the seven targeted countries to discuss what information would need to be shared in order to start granting visas once again. But if no agreement is reached, citizens would remain blocked from entry.
\n\u201cMy interpretation is that the Iranian government is not going to comply regarding sharing information,\u201d Abdi said, \u201cwhich would render this a permanent ban.\u201d<\/p>\n
By: Marcelo Rochabrun<\/strong><\/em> When details leaked earlier this week about a spate of immigration-related executive orders from President Donald Trump, much public discussion focused on a 30-day ban on new visas for citizens from seven \u201cterror-prone\u201d countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":7170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c43-analyses"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSource: ProPublica<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"