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 President Donald Trump’s travel ban could make that impossible.
Bone marrow transplants require a close match between donor and
recipient. A few months after his diagnosis last September, Hashemi,
60, learned that his brother in Iran, Kamiar Hashemi, was a rare
100-percent match. The only problem was Kamiar’s nationality.
The latest travel ban, issued as a presidential proclamation and
implemented on December 8 after months of legal wrangling, bars most
travelers to the United States from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen,
Somalia, Chad and North Korea, as well as certain government
officials from Venezuela. Although the ban allows for case-by-case
waivers to be granted, including for medical need, Kamiar Hashemi
has so far been denied a visa.
Attorneys who regularly deal with visa issues say the waiver process
is opaque. Visa applicants aren’t allowed to apply for waivers; they
are simply granted or not without explanation. U.S. officials won't
say how they make their decisions or how long they generally take.
A U.S. State Department official told Reuters that since the ban
took effect, more than 375 waivers have been approved but he
declined to say how many total visa applications have been filed
from countries covered by the ban. He said he could not comment on
the specifics of Hashemi’s case.
Kamiar Hashemi began the visa application process soon after
learning he was a match for his brother. In February, the
57-year-old small business owner traveled to Armenia to be
interviewed at the U.S. embassy there, since there is no embassy in
Iran.
Later on the day of the interview, Kamiar’s brother back in
Massachusetts checked the status of the application on the State
Department's website. A pop-up window announced in bright blue
letters: "Refused."
Waivers can later be granted to applicants initially refused for
visas, according to the State Department, so Maziar Hashemi
continued checking the website each day, but his brother’s status
hasn’t changed. He hired an immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai,
hoping she might smooth the way.
‘TRANSPARENT AS MUD’
The Trump administration has said travel restrictions are needed to
protect the United States from terrorism.
Critics have challenged the latest ban, as they did previous
versions, saying that it discriminates against Muslims. Six of the
eight countries included in the current ban are majority Muslim.
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Under the current proclamation, waivers can be granted in cases
where denying entry would cause undue hardship, when the individual
is found not to be a threat and when their entry is in the national
interest.
The proclamation lists ten examples of situations in which an
applicant might be eligible for a waiver. One reason mentioned is an
applicant’s need for urgent medical care, something that comes close
but doesn’t exactly fit the Hashemis’ situation, since it isn’t
Kamiar Hashemi, himself, in urgent need.
The State Department has declined to provide details of how waiver
decisions are made beyond some general answers to frequently asked
questions posted on its website. But a State Department letter
obtained by Reuters earlier this month said "there is no waiver form
to be completed" and that applicants who fall into the categories
outlined in the proclamation "must be considered" for one.
“The process is as transparent as mud,” said Hashemi’s attorney
Khanbabai. “There are no clear guidelines. It’s difficult to figure
out what the process is and who is actually doing the processing.”
Nevertheless, Khanbabai submitted a packet of information on the
Hashemis’ behalf to the embassy on March 19, including a letter from
Massachusetts General Hospital explaining that a perfect match for a
bone marrow transplant is very rare and could provide the only
viable treatment for Maziar Hashemi’s Myelodysplastic syndrome.
Worried about the ticking clock, Kamiar Hashemi looked into
traveling to India to have his bone marrow harvested there and
rushed to the United States, but that option was also thwarted.
A non-profit organization trying to facilitate the transfer, Be The
Match, said it had to pull out after its legal team concluded that
Kamiar’s bone marrow couldn’t be exported to the United States
because of U.S. sanctions on Iranian exports.
"Can you imagine that the cells of an Iranian needed in order to
help a U.S. citizen are embargoed?" said Maziar Hashemi, a civil
engineer who has lived in the United States since the 1970s.
"It is just unfair," he said in a phone interview. "I cannot wait
much longer."
(Reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York; Editing by Sue Horton and
Paul Thomasch)
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