The US Department of State on Friday instructed US embassies and consulates not to revoke visas previously issued to people from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries under US President Donald Trump’s new travel ban, which goes into effect tomorrow.
In a cable sent to all US diplomatic missions, the department said “no action should be taken for issued visas which have already left the consular section” and that “no visas issued prior to the effective date should be revoked pursuant to this proclamation.”
However, visa applicants from affected countries whose applications have been approved, but have not yet received their visas would be denied, said the cable, which was signed by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application would be rejected starting tomorrow.
Still, the cable, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, suggests there should be no issue for current visa holders from the affected countries entering the US after the restrictions take effect at midnight Washington time tomorrow.
During Trump’s first term, a hastily written executive order ordering the denial of entry to citizens of mainly Muslim countries created chaos at numerous airports and other ports of entry, prompting successful legal challenges and major revisions to the policy.
The new proclamation, which Trump signed on Wednesday, appears designed to beat any court challenge by focusing on the visa application process.
Rubio’s cable says the only people who should be denied entry into the US are those currently outside the US who do not have a valid visa on the effective date.
Despite Rubio’s cable, physically entering the US at a port of entry is not controlled by the state department. It is up to the US Department of Homeland Security and the discretion of individual US Customs and Border Patrol agents to determine if a visa holder is admitted or turned away.
The visa ban applies to people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Other visa restrictions are to apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Some exceptions apply only for specific countries, like Afghanistan. Others are for most of the countries, or are more general and unclear, like the policies for visitors planning to come to the US for the FIFA World Cup next year and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, two events Trump said he is excited to host.
Rubio’s cable said criteria for the exemptions under a national security waiver would be issued soon.
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS