Published on Portside (https://portside.org)
Trump’s
Muslim Ban Triggers Chaos, Heartbreak, and Resistance
Ryan Devereaux, Murtaza Hussain, Alice Speri
Sunday, January 29, 2017
The Intercept
Following
an executive order signed late Friday, President Donald Trump on Saturday
launched a sweeping attack on the travel rights of individuals from more than a
half-dozen Muslim-majority countries, turning away travelers at multiple U.S.
airports and leaving others stranded without answers — and without hope —
across the world.
Trump’s
order triggered waves of outrage and condemnation at home and abroad, prompting
thousands of protesters to flood several American airports and ultimately
culminating in a stay issued by a federal district judge in New York City on
the deportation of people who were being detained by immigration officials.
Similar stays were issued by judges in Washington state, Massachusetts, and
Virginia.
The
administration’s assault on civil liberties explicitly targeted the world’s
most vulnerable populations — refugees and asylum seekers fleeing devastating
wars — as well as young people with student visas pursuing an education in the
United States, green card holders with deep roots in the country, and a number
of citizens of countries not included in the ban. It also impacted American
children traveling with, or waiting to meet, their non-citizen parents.
With an
estimated 500,000 people in the crosshairs, Trump’s order was carried out
swiftly and sowed confusion among the nation’s immigration and homeland
security agencies — which were excluded from the drafting process and were
scrambling to understand how to implement it, according to media reports and
two government officials who spoke to The Intercept.
“We are
violating international law.”
Days before
the executive order was signed, reports began to emerge that valid visa holders
were suddenly being prevented from re-entering the country after taking trips
abroad. A senior U.S. immigration official, who asked not to be identified for
fear of retaliation, confirmed to The Intercept that the rash of unusual
student visa revocations began roughly a week before the official order was signed.
Many of the
stories the official heard about were anecdotal. Others, however, the official
was able to review via internal Department of Homeland Security monitoring
systems. While visas are revoked every day with little explanation afforded to
those affected, the backgrounds of the individuals in these cases raised no red
flags, the official said. On the contrary, the impacted individuals whose files
the official reviewed included a young mother of a U.S. citizen child and
students at some of the nation’s top universities who had been publicly
recognized for their outstanding achievement. These students had already
undergone rigorous U.S. government vetting before being admitted to the
country, and had only traveled abroad briefly over their winter break.
The
Intercept has independently verified two of these stories by speaking to those
denied entry, who asked that their names not be used because they are
attempting to appeal the decisions.
“The visa
terminations struck me as unusual given that in the cases that I observed,
nearly all of them had significant presence in the United States before the
ban,” the official told The Intercept. “More disturbing, in some cases the
individuals were allowed to board flights for the United States not knowing
their visas had been terminated. They were only informed when they attempted to
use their visas to seek admission and were denied. Even though they were
ignorant of the termination, they were still charged with violating U.S.
immigration law and given a five-year ban to future admission.”
By the time
Trump traveled to the Department of Homeland Security to trumpet the
signing of his first anti-immigrant executive order Wednesday, the immigration
official had personally reviewed four visa revocation cases that seemed to be
out of the ordinary. In addition to young people with passports belonging to
countries later targeted in Trump’s executive order, at least two were
traveling on Jordanian passports. All were denied entry to the United States.
In one case, the visa of an Ivy League medical student was revoked by Customs
and Border Protection while he was in the air from a European layover to
the U.S.
It’s
unclear whether the visa revocations last week were related to the subsequent
ban. “But the timing of the revocations indicates that CBP supervisors felt
sufficiently empowered to use their discretion to deny admission and cancel the
visas in these cases,” the immigration official said.
The
students repatriated earlier this week were also charged with violating U.S. immigration
law — despite their valid visas — much in the same manner as some of
those who were denied entry on Saturday, after the ban kicked in.
In another
case the immigration official reviewed, a Syrian woman traveling to the U.S.
from a third country on Saturday was denied entry and told she had to return to
her port of origin. After consulting immigration attorneys volunteering at the
airport, the woman — along with several other students, tourists, and
business visitors — formally requested “humanitarian parole,” which allows
temporary entry in emergency situations. When they were all denied that, she
requested asylum, explaining that she did not have residency in the third
country she had flown from and feared returning to Syria.
She was
told she was not eligible to request asylum and that she had no choice but to
return to her airport of origin, and then was walked to her gate. A lawyer she
had briefly been able to communicate with told the immigration official
that the woman was later made to sign a paper stating that she
understood she had violated immigration law.
“A bedrock
of refugee and asylum law is the concept of non-refoulement — not
returning an individual to a place where they will be harmed,” the immigration
official told The Intercept. Under international law, the United States is
required to screen applicants to ensure they will not face persecution if
returned to their countries, a process known as “credible fear screening.”
“Asylum law
requires CBP officers to affirmatively ask if an applicant fears return when
placing them into expedited removal,” the immigration official said. “By
pressuring them to simply get on a plane without going into formal removal
proceedings, they are violating our obligations under the refugee convention.”
“We are
violating international law.”
“We really
are still learning the impact of the order.”
Questions,
fear, and confusion ran deep on Saturday — not only among those directly
impacted by the ban but also by those trying to help them. “We are in the same
boat as everyone else trying to determine and understand the meaning of the
provisions in the executive order,” said Steve Letourneau, CEO of the Catholic
Charities Maine Refugee and Immigration Services, the primary provider of
refugee resettlement services in the state. “We really are still learning the
impact of the order.”
Refugee and
immigrant advocates were not the only ones scrambling to cope with the impact
of the order — many immigration officials tasked with enforcing it were also at
a loss. On Saturday, reports emerged [1] that
the Trump administration denied the Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice [2] input
on the drafting of the order. While the visa revocations described by the
immigration official we interviewed suggest that some CBP officials
had indications of what was coming, there were also reports that even
among career immigration and State Department officials, “nobody has any idea
what is going on,” NBC News reported [3].
A State
Department official confirmed this account to The Intercept. “De facto, we
were not consulted, not how we’d normally be consulted. We had less than a day
to review vague details,” said the official, who asked not to be identified for
fear of retaliation. “This normally takes weeks of conversation. This EO took
hours, and we never, never saw the final draft.”
“The ban
took everyone by surprise,” the official added. “We’ve known things were in the
works all week, but have basically been in the dark.”
“We honestly
don’t know what is going to happen,” said the immigration official. “The EOs
are extremely vague and some of our talk is based upon worst case scenarios. We
have heard rumors coming from upper DHS echelons, but nothing concrete.”
The
enormity of the executive order — slated to affect hundreds of thousands
of people as well as severely impact the United States’ relationships with
several countries — seemed to indicate it was written with little
appreciation of the workings of the system it sought to undo.
“I think
the government hasn’t had a full chance to think about this,” said Judge Ann
Donnelly, who issued an emergency stay[4] in
response to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU and other organizations and ordered the
government to provide a list of names of the people affected. That stay
— the first win in what will inevitably be many legal battles to come
— only applies to people currently in the United States or in transit to
the country.
“She has
her visa, she has everything. We even paid for her green card to come here.”
While
reports multiplied of airport detentions and forced repatriations, so too did
stories of panic and heartbreak among families who found themselves suddenly
separated and desperate for information on when they’d be able to see their
loved ones again.
Anfal
Hussain was among the worried and the waiting pacing the terminals at JFK
airport in New York City as the implications of Trump’s order became
increasingly clear. “It’s my mom,” Hussain told The Intercept, explaining that
her mother had flown from Iraq to join her daughters in the U.S. that morning.
“She was in the air when Trump was like, ‘No one is allowed to visit the United
States,’” Hussain said. “She has her visa, she has everything. We even paid for
her green card to come here. And we’re both citizens, me and my sister.”
Hussain
said her sister was able to speak to their mother briefly after she landed
Saturday morning. She was crying and scared, Hussain said. “She doesn’t really
speak English,” she added, and it was her first time traveling to the U.S.
Hussain explained that her mother’s husband had passed away recently and she
had no one left in Baghdad, a city increasingly riven by violence nearly a
decade and a half after the U.S. invasion.
“She wanted
to be with us,” Hussain said. “She wanted to be with her daughters.”
As the
wide-ranging scope of the executive order became clear, immigration attorneys
and advocates, as well as universities, issued warnings to citizens of the
banned countries not to leave the United States. CLEAR, a New York-based group
that is offering free legal advice to those impacted by the ban, circulated a
fact sheet explaining how people in the country on different immigration
statuses would be impacted if they left. It also warned green card holders
denied entry not to sign any forms at the border abandoning their permanent
residency.
But even as
protesters in airports across the country broke into jubilation at the news of
the stay, some people at those airports continued to be denied entry and, in
some cases, were still threatened with forcible removal.
Although
DHS issued a statement saying it would comply with the court orders, at Los
Angeles International Airport, Sara Yarjani, an Iranian citizen, was told
by CBP officials she had to board a flight to Copenhagen, despite the
nationwide stay and against the protests of lawyers and two U.S. congresswomen
who were present. The representatives, Rep. Judy Chu and Rep. Nanette Barragan,
asked over the phone to meet with CBP officials, who refused. When asked who
they were reporting to, the officials said “Donald J. Trump,” then hung up on
them.
The
Intercept was not able to confirm whether Yarjani was on the flight when
it took off or whether she remained detained at the airport.
While
nationals of seven countries — Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and
Yemen — have been targeted for exclusion so far, lawyers say that number could
soon increase. Trump’s order calls for a 30-day review period in which the
secretary of state and the director of national intelligence will compile
“information needed for adjudications and a list of countries that do not
provide adequate information.”
“The
executive order is drafted in a manner that anticipates the extension of the
ban. It’s clear that the White House expects that this is going to affect more
people and more countries going forward,” Gadeir Abbas, a Washington,
D.C.-based civil rights attorney, told The Intercept. “There is a lot of
ambiguity in the language used in the order — and executive power thrives on
ambiguity.”
A section
of the order also calls for the suspension of visas and “other immigration
benefits” to nationals of targeted countries. Abbas said this reference to
non-visa immigration benefits indicates a likely intention on the part of the
Trump administration to target green card holders already in the United States.
“The
changes in this order are not limited to border crossings. The text indicates
that restrictions can also apply to immigration benefits such as green card
renewal for those who are already inside the country,” Abbas said. “You could
be a green card holder for 20 years and be prevented from renewing your
documents — this is something that would impact a huge number of people.”
On
Saturday, the State Department also confirmed [5] that
dual nationals of other countries would be subject to the ban on entry. A
number of dual Iranian-Canadian citizens have already been prevented from
boarding flights into the United States or were sent back after landing there,
The Intercept has learned.
But while
there are no official accounts on the number of people impacted who were
traveling when the ban took effect, the impact on those temporarily outside the
country is likely exponentially larger. The stay does not apply to them, and
it’s unclear how many people were stranded outside the country after their
visas and green cards were suddenly revoked.
A Texas
resident named Stephanie Felten who contacted The Intercept said that her
sister-in-law, an Iranian green card holder who has lived in Chicago for over a
decade, was stranded in Iran after traveling there last week to visit family.
With her in Iran is her 3-year-old daughter, an American citizen, who now has
no way to return to the United States with her mother. Iran has promised a
reciprocal ban on American citizens traveling there, effectively making it
impossible for the child to see her father or the rest of her family.
“Nobody is
providing any answers right now,” said Felten. “We’re just trying to confirm
what we’re hearing. You can read the executive order and try to make
determinations, but then news breaks that even people that are dual citizens
are being turned away. Everyone is unsure where to turn.”
“My family
have become refugees from my country.”
Have you been
affected by President Trump’s travel ban? Do you know someone who has been
turned away while attempting to return to the United States? The Intercept
wants to hear your story. Please write to our reporters.
If you are
a federal employee working in immigration you can contact us anonymously via
SecureDrop. Instructions here: https://theintercept.com/leak/ [6]
Lynn
Dombek, Spencer Woodman, and Leighton Woodhouse contributed reporting to this
article.
Source URL: https://portside.org/2017-01-30/trump%E2%80%99s-muslim-ban-triggers-chaos-heartbreak-and-resistance
Links:
[1] https://twitter.com/AriMelber/status/825439087582650368
[2] https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/825444243044986880
[3] https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/825445791905021952
[4] https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/darweesh-v-trump-decision-and-order?redirect=legal-document/darweesh-v-trump-order
[5] http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-visa-ban-also-applies-to-citizens-with-dual-nationality-state-department-says-1485628654
[6] https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2Fleak%2F&h=ATMc2r5s4Klcp-0vLNdDYE5b_jpwbtSbj1_5rmyQLcwq7IDipgvP26sF36U2oOXvAqYQYK_Jk4kaoBp6hNSy98zF2Ub6W58zh9YQKNy8sxr2z1c_97Zzuo5CqSAwet4eVKbIisdJpPiI&enc=AZMkjvMxXcoACXmPCQE37VINF1heT9-fydFl0S0Z1dE1eV8fYPMCfV3buoGAO0xOD7csZ3XGs0GTf_do528eNhyxTgc21XFGxYaOvk0WPG91Yn9t3DzhtEitoHPNCtAH-y0bcs0GbGMNRQd0pqZuSdL2b_F-aB30FJTdgClk6HysJzCABVkoMzu5WMoKq5cgWq0tGbeJuXdg8I5UIMbQ3GDx&s=1
[2] https://twitter.com/AymanM/status/825444243044986880
[3] https://twitter.com/BraddJaffy/status/825445791905021952
[4] https://www.aclu.org/legal-document/darweesh-v-trump-decision-and-order?redirect=legal-document/darweesh-v-trump-order
[5] http://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-visa-ban-also-applies-to-citizens-with-dual-nationality-state-department-says-1485628654
[6] https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftheintercept.com%2Fleak%2F&h=ATMc2r5s4Klcp-0vLNdDYE5b_jpwbtSbj1_5rmyQLcwq7IDipgvP26sF36U2oOXvAqYQYK_Jk4kaoBp6hNSy98zF2Ub6W58zh9YQKNy8sxr2z1c_97Zzuo5CqSAwet4eVKbIisdJpPiI&enc=AZMkjvMxXcoACXmPCQE37VINF1heT9-fydFl0S0Z1dE1eV8fYPMCfV3buoGAO0xOD7csZ3XGs0GTf_do528eNhyxTgc21XFGxYaOvk0WPG91Yn9t3DzhtEitoHPNCtAH-y0bcs0GbGMNRQd0pqZuSdL2b_F-aB30FJTdgClk6HysJzCABVkoMzu5WMoKq5cgWq0tGbeJuXdg8I5UIMbQ3GDx&s=1
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