FULL TRANSCRIPT
[The following is the full transcript of the blog video: Specific Individuals Affected by Presidential Proclamations in 2020]
Which specific individuals are restricted? Are suspended from traveling to the US? I’m Erick Widman, I’m a US-based Immigration Lawyer. In this video, we’re going to be looking at the specific individuals rather than the specific countries that President Trump has suspended from entry into the US through his presidential proclamations. So he started out in the beginning of 2020, by restricting certain countries, and we went through those countries in a different video. But then in April of 2020, he started a new issuance of a new proclamation, restricting specific individuals, a new presidential proclamation. So April 24, he laid out what is basically a COVID-19 immigration ban. It was initially for 60 days, but then it was extended through the end of this year. The authority is strong for the President to do this, legally, and constitutionally. And there’s a specific section of the immigration Nationality Act, section 212 F, that gives the president a lot of power to determine who is detrimental to the interests of the United States or not. And if they’re detrimental, according to the President, they can be restricted pretty effectively. And this is actually the same statutory basis for restricting Muslims back in 2017. Now, the justification for this was security grounds, and it was supposed to protect the US from foreign threats. But unlike the travel ban, the COVID-19 immigrant visa ban suspends the entry of immigrants here based on their negative impact on the labor market, rather than national security grounds. So a bit of a contradiction there. But this COVID-19, immigrant visa ban mainly targets, a combination of non-citizens who are coming here based on their family ties to US citizens, or green card holders. So here’s who are the individuals who are directly affected by this COVID travel ban. So the non-citizen parents of US citizens, the non-citizen, adult children, if you’re over the age of 21 of US citizens. If you’re a non-citizen, and you’re a sibling, brother or sister of a US citizen, you’re also directly affected by the spouses of green card holders who are not citizens, non-citizen children, regardless of how old you are, or green card holders, or lprs, lawful permanent residents. And if you’re a diversity visa lottery winner, and there’s been quite a bit of litigation about that, in 2020. Non-citizens who seek to enter the US on employment-based visas have a different set of targeted bands and proclamations. Now, there’s, thankfully a number of individuals who are not affected by these proclamations in 2020. Here’s a list of who’s not affected. You have nonsense spouses, non-citizen spouses of US citizens. If you’re not a citizen of the US, and you’re a child of a US citizen, or you can be adopted by a US citizen and you’re under the age of 21. You’re also exempted. Continuing with the good news here, non-citizens who seek to enter the US on an EB five, which is an immigrant investor visa, or if you’re coming here as a physician and nurse or other health care professionals, and you’re fighting the Coronavirus, there’s a specific exemption for you too. There are a few other key categories that you might be able to fall into. If you could further important US law enforcement objectives. Or you’re a member of the armed forces or the spouse or child Armed Forces member and another one that would allow you to be exempt. You’re supporting you’ve been helping the US military as an Iraqi or Afghan translator. In general employment-based categories are mostly exempt from this specific travel ban proclamation
