President Trump’s newly signed an Executive Order on February 6, 2017, entitled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States” modifies and somewhat tempers his prior Executive Order on a similar topic. In order to correct the typos, faulty legal analysis, lack of justification, and failure of common sense in the prior Executive Order, this new Executive Order is four times longer the the one Trump signed on January 27, 2017, more than five weeks ago. The new Executive Order, has some immediate and some delayed effects on people traveling to the United States, but also has a long term impact on individuals with visas and permanent residence in the United States today, as well as severely, negatively impacting refugee admission into the United States.
First, this Order specifically restricts any and all visa-issuance for individuals from Syria, Yemen, Libya, Sudan and Somalia, and Iran, e.g. “Nationals of Countries of Particular Concern.” Iraq is now off the list because in 39 days, apparently, it has made sufficient efforts to “share” data with the US (what that is, no one actually knows), enough to calm the folks in Trump’s anti-immigrant circle (or perhaps it was the fear that Trump’s ill-advised January 27, 2017 EO was putting our troops at risk). The memo continues to state that additional countries could be included at a later date. Anyone who was issued a visa prior to January 28, 2017, can, apparently, travel freely to the from these six countries to and from the United States. Yet, what remains is that USCIS and the Department of State cannot grant lawful permanent residence, or issue approvals for status changes, or issue visas to people born in these countries for the duration of the Executive Order, likely for at least 90 days. In addition, this means that Customs and Border Protection cannot “admit” anyone into the United States traveling on an immigrant visa or any type of nonimmigrant visa for 90 days. The start day of this Executive Order is on March 16, 2017. The mad rush for visas and consular processing is now one.
Our Advice: If you are citizen of one of these six countries, make sure that you comply with the detailed exceptions outlined in the Executive Order. Travel from the U.S. to any other country MAY result in your inability to return to the US if you were born in one of these seven countries, regardless of what other passport or nationality you hold. Consult your KIP attorney with your questions about this.
Second, the Executive Order also halts, again, the resettlement of refugees in the U.S. for 120 days, giving the Trump Administration time to evaluate the efficacy of the security screening process. Further, Syrian refugees are no longer permanently barred from being part of the refugee program, once the program is restarted. Please note that this provision of the Executive Order, may be contrary to existing law. Certainly the reduction of refugees in FY2017 from 100,000 to 50,000 is contrary to existing law. If any part of this Executive Order is likely to be struck down, it is this.
