In Dec. 2015, at a campaign rally in South Carolina, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” until representatives could “figure out what the hell is going on”.
Now, President Trump has repeated the same play with respect to the “public charge” ground of inadmissibility. The State Department announced that effective Jan. 21 immigrant visa issuance for nationals of 75 countries will be paused at the President’s direction while the “Department of State is undergoing a full review of all policies, regulations, and guidance to ensure that immigrants from these high-risk countries do not utilize welfare in the United States or become a public charge.”
Here’s an analogy: banning the use of all cars while the President figures out “what the hell is going on” with wheels.
Public charge laws have a longer history in the United States than cars. They began as poor laws stipulating who could and could not reside in colonial towns. The English colony of Massachusetts enacted the earliest American public charge laws in 1645. These laws became policy governing who could and could not enter states like New York and Massachusetts in the early years of the republic. Although poor laws governed admission to states for Americans as well as foreigners, by the mid-nineteenth century they morphed into proto-immigration laws for individual states. The first federal immigration laws were modeled on these policies, excluding “any convict, lunatic, idiot, or any person unable to take care of himself or herself without becoming a public charge” (1882) and any person deemed “likely to become a public charge” (1891).
The State Department’s announcement gives zero explanation for why it is an emergency to shut down immigrant visa processing while a 400-year-old policy is reevaluated.
Meanwhile, U.S. citizens and permanent residents are indefinitely separated from their spouses, parents, and children stuck abroad. The Administration doesn’t even feel that it owes these families an explanation for the hardship being imposed on them.
The list of affected countries is as follows:
Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Barbados, Belarus, Belize, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Colombia, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Fiji, The Gambia, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Republic, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Russia, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.
This new announcement applies only to immigrant visas. The pause does not apply to nonimmigrant visas.
There are exceptions for
- dual nationals applying with a passport from a country that is not listed;
- cases where immigration is in the “national interest”; and
- children being adopted by U.S. citizens.
According to a State Department cable, interviews will go forward during the pause. The cable instructs officers to “conduct interviews and fully assess each applicant.” Officers are instructed to deny cases for other reasons if applicable; if none, the officer is to temporarily deny the case under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. The State Department has given no indication how long this pause will last.
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