Some would-be immigrants left in limbo
after Supreme Court travel ban order
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[June 28, 2017]
By Yeganeh Torbati
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Without close family
in the United States, Elly and her husband had few options for getting
permission to immigrate to America from Iran. So when they won a U.S.
government lottery last September for a so-called "diversity visa"
allowing them to resettle in the United States, the couple was thrilled.
"Since last year, we made all the important decisions in our lives
because we hoped we would get a visa," Elly said, declining to give her
full name because her visa application is still in process. The couple
decided to put off having children and purchasing a home until after
their move to the United States.
But the visa, which they still hope to get, is still being processed.
Their attorney provided Reuters email documentation of their application
to verify some of their account.
Elly and her husband are two of the many people who fall into gray areas
created by Monday's U.S. Supreme Court order allowing parts of Donald
Trump's travel ban to take effect.
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While the court said it would exempt travelers from the ban who have
"bona fide relationships" with Americans, the ruling did not specify
exactly what that means, leaving would-be travelers from the six
countries affected by the ban uncertain whether they will be allowed to
enter the United States.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court said Trump's blanket 90-day ban on
travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen could
proceed, but only for foreigners with no "bona fide relationship" with
an American person or entity.
The court gave examples of what might qualify some travelers for
exemptions from the ban, including close family ties in the United
States, admittance to a U.S. university, or offers of employment from an
American company.
Many advocates for immigrants say they are hopeful that the vast
majority of people from the six targeted countries applying for U.S.
visas will qualify for such exemptions.
But the ruling leaves some things vague, and has led to confusion and
anxiety for those like Elly and her husband, who had hoped to come to
the United States but do not fall into one of the clear exemptions laid
out in the ruling.
Also in the gray area are such things as travel strictly for tourism or
to attend conferences. Would-be travelers are also asking how close
family members need to be, and whether traveling to see close friends in
America might qualify.
DIVERSITY VISAS AT RISK
Diversity visa applicants like Elly are among those in limbo. The
program grants 50,000 visas per year to citizens of countries that
normally do not send many immigrants to the United States.
In 2015, 10,487 citizens of the six countries targeted by Trump's travel
ban were selected for diversity visas, according to State Department
figures. Nearly half that number, 4,992, went to Iranians alone.
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"Absolutely, diversity visas will be affected," said Leon Rodriguez, a
former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, an agency
within the Department of Homeland Security. "You generally don't even go
into the diversity visa system unless you lack another pathway."
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International passengers arrive at Washington Dulles International
Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S., June 26, 2017. REUTERS/James
Lawler Duggan
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The State Department said on Tuesday that it was trying to develop a
definition for what constitutes a bona fide relationship for
travelers.
"We have a couple days still to work this out and get more
information," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told
reporters on Tuesday. "We will be looking to the Department of
Justice to get more clarification on what a bona fide relationship
would be."
BUSINESSES COULD BE SPARED
Hawaii Attorney General Douglas Chin, who led the legal fight
against Trump's revised order, said the exemptions included in the
Supreme Court's order will likely spare businesses the kind of
disruption they would have faced without them. Chin said his office
has reached out to the federal government to try to agree on an
interpretation that could avoid additional litigation.
"We are trying to look for ways to come up with a framework that
everyone can live with going forward," Chin said.
If the U.S. government bars entry to an individual because they lack
a "bona fide relationship" with someone in the country, one way to
challenge the decision would be for the person to file a so-called
contempt motion before the same federal judges in Hawaii or Maryland
who blocked the travel ban in the first place, legal experts said.
Instead of filing a brand-new lawsuit, the person could ask U.S.
District Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii to hold the Trump
administration in contempt because it interpreted the Supreme Court
opinion too broadly. Such a strategy could increase the chances of a
favorable ruling for the person seeking to enter the United States,
since Watson has already shown a dim view toward Trump's policy.
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Elly and her husband, who are in their late 20s and early 30s
respectively and are both university-educated, remain hopeful they
will be allowed to come. In May, they had their interviews with
consular officials, usually among the final steps before a visa
decision.
The diversity visa is a pathway to permanent residence, commonly
known as a green card.
"One could argue that those winning the green card lottery have a
bona fide relationship with the U.S. government that is formal,
documented and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the
purpose of evading the executive order," said Shahrzad Rezvani, an
immigration attorney based in Maryland. "It remains to be seen, I
guess, since the language is unclear."
(Additional reporting by Dan Levine; editing by Sue Horton and
Jonathan Oatis)
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