The anger and the condemnation exploded when the families, lawyers and defenders of immigrants absorbed the explosion of the last bomb delivered by Trump’s immigration, a prohibition of traveling that stops or restricts people of 19 mostly African, Asian and Caribbean countries that enter the United States.
While the Trump administration said the prohibition of traveling is aimed at keeping the Americans safe, critics took out the accusations of discrimination, cruelty, racism, inhumanity and more in response. Meanwhile, the news also caused confusion about what will happen once the prohibition enters into force on Monday.
“This prohibition of traveling is a racist, intolerant and xenophobic and deeply anti -American attack against human rights: it is like persecution. We have fled dictatorship, violence, hunger,” Adelys Ferro, executive director of Venezuelan American Caucus, told NBC News in Miami, a city with a large population of immigrants from several countries in countries in countries.
“This administration clearly has something against immigrants, and has something against us in particular,” said José Antonio Colina, a former Venezuelan army lieutenant who fled to Miami in 2003 and directs the organization of Exiles Veppex. “We are double. We are persecuted by the tyranny of Nicolás Maduro and we are persecuted by the administration of Donald Trump.”
A 38 -year -old Haitian green card holder in Miami who was too afraid to allow her name to be used said that she and many others in the community feel “confused and scared” for the prohibition of traveling in Haiti. She said that most of her family lives there, including her sister and father, who is sick. “They come all the time to visit and now I don’t know if they can,” he said, adding that he heard there were exceptions to the ban, but he was not sure.
There are some exceptions, even for people with legal permanent residence, spouses and children of American citizens, those who are adopted and others.
“But if you are a permanent resident spouse, forget it,” said Doug Rand, former director of American citizenship and immigration services during the Biden administration. It will also affect other relatives, such as adult children and brothers of permanent legal residents, people who won the diversity lottery or were sponsored by an American employer and are from the countries that are listed listed, “the people who have been waiting for years and did so in the right way,” he said.
In Havana, a tail of people outside the American embassy learned the news of the prohibition of travel and suspensions while waiting for their visa interviews.
“I had been waiting for nine years for this moment,” said a young woman in the row, who refused to be identified by his name for fear that he could affect his visa possibilities. She and others said the suspension means not being able to visit the family or escape terrible circumstances in Cuba.
“If they do not give visas, Cubans of hunger, given the situation, of hunger,” said Ismael Gainza, a retired Cuban. “I see that measure as bad, I see it so bad because the situation is difficult and we have to survive.”
Trump’s proclamation broadcast on Wednesday night prohibits people from 12 countries traveling to the United States, countries are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
In seven more countries, the trip to the United States was suspended but not prohibited. They are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Shahzeen Karim, managing lawyer of the Hafey & Karim law firm, said that although it is in the space of the immigration law, she has “republican opinions” on the subject, agreeing that there is a need for a stricter immigration policy and a more exhaustive detection.
“I know that the White House presented some explanations of why each of those countries, but I can’t help feeling very attacked, being a Muslim immigration lawyer,” Karim said. “Unfortunately, countries are major Muslims.”
Challenging the ban could be ‘a uphill battle’
Immigration defenders said that, unlike Trump’s previous prohibition, which took them by surprise, they hoped that the president promulgated a similar policy in his second mandate. Trump’s ban in 2017 immediately prevented Muslims from entering the country, leaving something stranded in airports or could not address flights.
But like their previous prohibition, the impact of the current prohibition in force next week will feel the people who try to bring together families, those who achieved a job in the United States, who had tours or planned visits, who planned to study here or expected a cultural exchange.
Three attempts were needed for Trump, in their previous administration, they occurred to a prohibition of traveling that the United States Supreme Court would accept. The lower courts rejected the first version and the administration continued to review it until the Superior Court accepted its third version in June 2018. Immigration and civil rights groups opposed the three versions.
Raha Wala, Vice President of Strategy and Associations at the National Imigration Law Center, said that challenging the last prohibition “will be a uphill battle” because the decision of the Supreme Court is the law of the land.
Edward Cuccia, an immigration lawyer in New York City, said that blocking the last ban could be more difficult now than in 2017.
“Trump became smarter this time,” he said, explaining that the mixture of countries makes it more difficult to argue that the prohibition is discriminatory.
In addition, the implementation will not be so abrupt and the argument that the marked nations do not examine the documents of their citizens can remain in court, according to Cuccia.
Even so, implications are enormous for affected people and are not a security threat, he said.
“What will this mean for family unification? There are many countries here!” Cuccia said. “And then, there are people who perhaps had business, people who wanted to make investments here in the United States or come in temporary work visas, student visas or even to visit … that seems to have come out the window.”
Wala described the justification of the prohibition, which visa overlapping has a national security threat and the inability to completely examine visa travelers in those countries, a “fig tree sheet.”
If there is a gap in the investigation, “it is worth taking a look,” he said, but added that “all kinds of people exceed their visas, and just because someone exceeded their visa and committed a crime, we just have to get away from this fault for the concept of association.”
For Wala, the recently announced prohibition cannot be separated from the president’s previous policies and statements.
“This prohibition began when the president said that he was going to have a complete and total closure of Muslims in the country. And he also said he wants to prohibit people, and forgive my French here, from the countries of S — Hole,” Wala said.
In Miami, Colina said he was happy that the prohibition prevented Maduro regime officials in Venezuela and their families “to always find a way” to obtain a visa to enter the country, “but they are a minority, and partial prohibition will negatively affect the largest community and is not fair.”
