The Supreme Court of the U.S. (SCOTUS) has ruled that some foreign nationals from six Muslim-majority countries could be kept from entering the U.S. in accordance with Trump’s infamous travel ban.
After much debate and controversy, Trump has won a preliminarily fight to keep his travel ban in tact when SCOTUS knocked down the lower courts’ move to revoke the ban. In effect, the administration can now enforce parts of the executive order as the case remains to be fully heard in October. In turn, this will largely affect future visa applicants from these countries but not necessarily affect current visa holders.
Trump’s first travel ban barred people from seven majority-Muslim countries – Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya – from entering the US for 90 days. It also halted refugee resettlement for 120 days and banned Syrian refugees indefinitely.
A nationwide temporary restraining order (TRO), however, was issued on February 3, 2017 in the case of Washington v. Trump, which was upheld by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on February 9, 2017.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) stopped enforcing portions of the order and the State Department re-validated visas that had been previously revoked. More than 700 travellers were detained and up to 60,000 visas were “provisionally revoked.”
Trump then revoked the initial order and drafted a revised travel ban removing Iraq from the list. It also lifted the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees and exempted permanent residents and current visa holders. The revised ban states that current visa and green card holders from the countries on the list – now six countries – may still be allowed entry, as will dual nationals traveling on a passport from a country not on the list.
SCOTUS has now reviewed Trump’s revised ban and held two major points:
- “The interest in preserving national security is, ‘an urgent objective of the highest order,’” the justices wrote. “To prevent the Government from pursuing that objective by enforcing (the travel ban) against foreign nationals unconnected to the United States would appreciably injure its interests, without alleviating obvious hardship to anyone else.”
- “…§2(c) may not be enforced against foreign nationals who have a credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States. All other foreign nationals are subject to the provisions of EO–2.”
These findings translate into some foreign nationals from the six aforementioned countries possibly being able to still enter the country if: (1) they have strong family ties in the country (i.e., U.S. Citizen family member); (2) a U.S. university has accepted them as a student; or (3) If a U.S. business has given them a job.
Current Visa Holders;
The following categories of travellers will also be excluded from the travel ban:
- U.S. citizens;
- legal permanent residents
- current visa holders
- visa applicants who were in the U.S. as of June 26
- dual nationals
- anyone granted asylum or refugee status.
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For a detailed outline of current visas affected by Trump’s revised travel ban please
review the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association Travel Ban Outline at:
http://www.aila.org/infonet/practice-alert-travel-warning
by; Arce Immigration Law, P.A.