On March 6, 2017, President Trump signed an Executive Order No. 13780 entitled “Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States” (i.e., travel ban). This Executive Order revokes the previous Executive Order 13769 with the same title that was subject to litigation (see our summary on the 9th Circuit’s Decision here), and affects nationals of 6 of the 7 original countries listed in the previous Executive Order. The revocation of the first Executive Order and implementation of the second Executive Order is not effective immediately but is scheduled to take affect at 12:01 AM EDT on March 16, 2017.
The countries that are currently affected are Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. This Executive Order states that Iraq is not on the current list because the Iraqi government undertook steps to enhance travel documentation, information sharing, and the return of Iraqi nationals subject to final orders of removal since the previous Executive Order. However, the current Executive Order does caution that Iraqi nationals continue to be subject to additional scrutiny to determine whether they have connections with ISIS or other terrorist organizations, or otherwise pose a risk to either national security or public safety. The Executive Order provides that additional countries may be added in the future.
Entries by nationals of the six listed countries are suspended (i.e., banned) for 90 days from the effective date, i.e. March 16, 2017, if they: (i) were outside the United States on March 16, 2017; (ii) did not have a valid visa at 5:00 PM, eastern standard time on January 27, 2017 (the effective date and time of the first Executive Order); and (iii) did not have a valid visa on March 16, 2017 (the effective date of this second Executive Order).
Under the revised Executive Order, exceptions to the travel ban include:
- lawful permanent residents of the United States;
- foreign nationals admitted to or paroled into the United States on or after March 16, 2017,
- foreign nationals granted an advance parole document on or after March 16, 2017;
- foreign nationals traveling on a diplomatic visa,
- foreign nationals who were “already” admitted as refugees, , and foreign nationals granted asylum, withholding of removal or Convention Against Torture protection, and
- dual nationals holding a passport from a non-designated country and using that passport for entry into the United States.
The Executive Order also permits a consular or CBP officer to grant a waiver if an affected national can convince the officer that denying entry during the 90-day suspension period would cause undue hardship. The officer must also be convinced that entry would not pose a threat to national security because the waiver would be in the national interest. For example, a case-by-case waiver may be granted if an affected individual has previously been admitted to the United States for a continuous period of work, study, or other long-term activity but was outside the United States on March 16, 2017, and seeks to reenter the United States to resume that activity. Further, the current Executive Order clarifies that any waiver issued by a consular officer as part of the visa issuance process is effective both for the issued visa and any subsequent entry on that visa. It also provides that no visas will be revoked solely on the basis of the Executive Order.
Similar to the first Executive Order, this second Executive Order extends beyond foreign nationals from the targeted countries, and:
- calls for implementation of “uniform screening and vetting standard for all immigration programs” to better identify foreign nationals who seek to enter the US on a fraudulent basis, who support terrorism, violent extremism, acts of violence, or present a risk of causing harm.
- suspends refugee admissions for 120 days from the date of the Order (striking the indefinite suspension of refugee admissions of Syrians), and reduces refugee entries to 50,000 for FY2017.
- calls for completion of a Biometric Entry-Exit Tracking System.
- suspends the visa interview waiver program, subject to specific statutory exceptions.
The Department of Homeland Security has issued an FAQ on the Executive Order stating that N-400 and I-485 applications will continue to be adjudicated, but does not mention other application types.
The Department of State has issued a news alert stating that US embassies and consulates will continue to process visa applications, and does not provide information on which visa interview waivers are affected.
The full text of Executive Order 13780 can be found here. We will continue to post further updates on our news page.
