Greene County Democrat

Tag: travel ban

  • Newswire: New hurdle for Nigerians seeking U. S. visas to settle here

    Feb. 3, 2020 (GIN) – She’s your pediatrician. He’s your surgeon. She’s a civil engineer. He has a doctorate. She’s an Emmy Award winner. He was a Chicago Bear.
    They’re Nigerian-Americans who have set down roots in Dallas, Chicago, Baltimore, Atlanta, Phoenix and Houston – the latter of which has the largest Nigerian population outside Brazil and Africa. They’re the largest group among African immigrants in the U.S. – about 327,000. They’re a tiny portion of the U.S. population, but they rank as the most successful ethnic group in the U.S.
    Yet, on the eve of Black History month, the President callously expanded a travel ban that effectively bars Nigerians from obtaining visas to immigrate here permanently. The new restrictions will not apply to tourist, business, or other nonimmigrant travel. But for the large Nigerian diaspora in the US, the policy will be devastating to a community with deep family and cultural ties to their home country.
    Nigerians expressed disbelief and anger after the Trump administration announced the policy, which takes effect Feb. 21. The decision affects Nigeria Eritrea, Sudan, and Tanzania as well as Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar. Additionally, immigrants from Sudan and Tanzania will be excluded from the diversity visa lottery, which grants green cards to as many as 50,000 people every year.

    Many Nigerians wondered why they specifically were targeted, when many other countries might pose similar security threats. Amaha Kassa, head of African Communities Together, which advocates for African immigrants and their families, told reporters that at the group’s latest meeting in New York City, dozens of Nigerians were asking one question: “Why single us out?”
    Immigrant advocates say it’s based on discriminatory motivations.
    For Okorafor Chimedu, a 29-year-old teacher in Warri, Nigeria, with a university degree and relatives already in the United States, his chances now to join them appear slim.
    “I hope the two nations will rectify their differences soon so that the ban can be lifted,” he said to a reporter. “We need each other to progress in this world. No man is an island of his own.”
    Omar Jadwat of the ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project suggested the ban was imposed because the excluded countries don’t share enough information so that (we) can vet their citizens when they arrive.
    The so-called “Muslim ban,” already affects citizens from Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Venezuela and North Korea.
    Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, sharply disputed the U.S. move.
    “In our view, (the ban) was not well thought out but based largely on negative narratives spread by naysayers. I know we are working very well with our neighbors, the EU and the U.S. to ensure that terrorism is addressed.”
    “Our advice to the U.S. is that it should have a rethink on the issue because any travel ban is bound to affect investment and growth in the country and those who will be affected are the most vulnerable people in Nigeria.”
    In a separate development, China has halted the issuance of visas to Nigerians citing their effort to control the spread of the coronavirus in the Asian country.

  • Revised ban on immigrants is ‘catastrophic’, critics charge

     

    ban protest

     

    (TriceEdneyWire.com/Global Information Network) – A revised travel ban by the Trump administration is already in trouble with a leading aid agency, with the travel industry, and with the Nigerian government which has urged its citizens to postpone making trips to the U.S. without “compelling or essential reasons.”

    The new travel ban, which still targets majority-Muslim countries, slightly modifies an earlier order that sparked chaos at airports across the country as travelers – even those with green cards – were denied entry by local officers.

    One of the harsher critics of the new ban, the head of the NY-based International Rescue Committee, labeled it an “historic assault on refugee resettlement to the United States, and a really catastrophic cut at a time there are more refugees around the world than ever before.”

    “There is there is no national security justification for this ‘catastrophic’ cut in refugee admissions,” declared David Miliband, adding that the ban singles out “the most vulnerable, most vetted population that is entering the United States.”

    The IRC provides humanitarian aid in five African countries, six Middle Eastern countries, six Asian countries, three European countries, and 22 cities in the U.S.

    Trump’s latest order suspends the U.S. refugee program for 120 days, though refugees already formally scheduled for travel by the State Department will be allowed entry. When the suspension is lifted, the number of refugees allowed into the U.S. will be capped at 50,000 for fiscal year 2017.

    But the new and higher bars to entry to the U.S. have the tourism industry biting its nails. Travel analytics firm ForwardKeys tallied the fall-off in major tourism-dependent U.S. cities as 6.5 percent in the eight days after President Donald Trump’s initial travel ban was announced on Jan. 27th.

    In New York City, analysts foresee some 300,000 fewer visitors from abroad this year than in 2016, a 2.1 percent dip. It’s the first time for such a fall-off since 2008, says NYC & Company, New York’s tourism arm.

    Even some African countries are sounding the alarm. In Nigeria, for example, special presidential adviser Abike Dabiri-Erewa, urged Nigerians to consider postponing visits to the U.S.

    “In the last few weeks, the office has received a few cases of Nigerians with valid multiple-entry US visas being denied entry and sent back to Nigeria,” she said. “In such cases, affected persons were sent back immediately on the next available flight and their visas were cancelled.”

    Planned trips should be delayed, she advised, barring compelling or essential reasons, until there is clarity on the new immigration policy from Washington.

    The latest action by the Trump administration could spell trouble for the 2.1 million African immigrants living in the U.S., 327,000 of whom were born in Nigeria, according to the Pew Research Center, published in February.

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