Thread: Delightfully Nuanced Threats as State Dept. Seeks to Expand Deportations

Delightfully Nuanced Threats as State Dept. Seeks to Expand Deport

PrintBy David North on September 19, 2017




Sometimes the Trump administration's immigration policy moves are as subtle as a baseball bat, but this past week the State Department produced as delicately nuanced a set of threats as a tapestry artist might have imagined.


The immigration issue: Too many nations do not accept their own misbehaving nationals when we want to deport them. This is perfectly rational on the part of the other nations because most of the people that the United States wants to deport are criminals, or losers, or both. The Eritrean government, for example, would understandably prefer that these people remain some place other than Eritrea.


Meanwhile, we cannot gain leverage by saying to the other government, OK we will not accept our citizens when you want to deport them, because Eritrea, for example, rarely has cause to deport an American. Further, as I learned from my colleague, Jessica Vaughan, a former Foreign Service officer, governments typically do not use other programs, such as the denial of or reduction of foreign assistance, as a tool in these matters.


The main tool used by the United States is to deny the issuance of visas to residents of the nation in question until it starts accepting its own repatriates. Such a move tends to hurt upper class residents of the foreign nation because it is only the more prosperous who seek to travel to the States.


The Obama administration, unenthusiastic as it was about deportations, generally, did not do much of this, but last week the Trump administration took on four nations that have refused for years to take back our deportees, causing us to release many of them back into the U.S. population.


The four nations are Cambodia, in Asia, and Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, in Africa. The differing levels of threats used to deny visas to the residents of those nations are shown in the table that follows.

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Visa Denial Threats by Definition of Population Threatened (smallest to largest)

Nation	Number of Refused Deportees	Who Is Denied Visas
Cambodia	1,900	B visas for a handful of high level diplomats (director generals and their families)
Sierra Leone	831	B visas for all foreign service and immigration officials
Guinea	2,131	B, F, J, and M visas for all government officials and their families
Eritrea	700	B visas for the entire population

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Note: B visas are for tourists, F for academic students, J for exchange visitors, and M for vocational students.

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Either our government is not very worried about the 1,900 Cambodians we want to deport or it senses that a very minor threat can change the Cambodian government's posture on this issue. At the other end of the spectrum is Eritrea. We must either be very worried about some of those 700, or sense that a major threat — no B visas for anyone in that nation — is needed to get that government to cooperate.


The shading of the threat levels is interesting in and of itself. Perhaps State is experimenting with these levels of threats to determine what levels to use with the many other nations that have refused to take back their own nationals.


I was particularly intrigued by the reference to M visas, generally a small category, for Guinea (formerly a French colony on Africa's West Coast) as exactly one M visa was issued for that nation in the last four years and that was for the spouse or child of a vocational student, an M-2 visa, and that was back in 2013. Were M visas just added to the mix out of sense of completeness or did the post know, for example, that the justice minister's nephew had applied for one in order to secure flight training in the United States? We will never know.


For more on this see this DHS press release of September 13. DHS issued the release, but State wrote the new visa rules.



https://cis.org/North/Delightfully-N...d-Deportations

DHS Announces Implementation of Visa Sanctions on Four Countries






Release Date:
September 13, 2017

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone Have Failed to Accept Removed Nationals

WASHINGTON — The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today announced, in coordination with the State Department, the implementation of visa sanctions on Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone due to lack of cooperation in accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States.

Pursuant to her authority under Section 243(d) of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke notified Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that the governments of Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have denied or unreasonably delayed accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States. As a result, Secretary of State Tillerson has ordered consular officers in these countries to implement visa restrictions on certain categories of visa applicants, determined on a country-by-country basis. Without an appropriate response from the impacted countries, the scope of these sanctions may be expanded to a wider population. The suspension will remain in place on each of these respective countries until the Secretary of Homeland Security notifies Secretary Tillerson that cooperation on removals has improved to an acceptable level.

“International law obligates each country to accept the return of its nationals ordered removed from the United States,” said Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke. “Cambodia, Eritrea, Guinea, and Sierra Leone have failed in that responsibility. The United States itself routinely cooperates with foreign governments in documenting and accepting its citizens when asked, as do the majority of countries in the world. However, these countries have failed to do so, and that one way street ends with these sanctions.”

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Zadvydas v. Davis, with narrow exceptions, aliens with final orders of removal, including aliens determined to pose a threat to the community or considered a flight risk, may not be detained beyond a presumptively reasonable period of six months if there is no “significant likelihood of removal in the reasonably foreseeable future.” By delaying or refusing to issue travel documents to their citizens, the most common of which is a passport, or refusing accept their nationals within this time period, these countries have forced U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release thousands of dangerous criminals into communities across the United States. Without a travel document issued by an alien’s home country to confirm identity and nationality, ICE cannot complete the removal process, with very limited exceptions.

“American citizens have been harmed because foreign governments refuse to take back their citizens. These sanctions will ensure that the problem these countries pose will get no worse as ICE continues its work to remove dangerous criminals from the United States,” said ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan.

These four countries have not established reliable processes for issuing travel documents to their nationals ordered removed from the United States. For this reason, ICE has been forced to release into the United States approximately 2,137 Guinean and 831 Sierra Leone nationals, many with serious criminal convictions.

There are approximately 700 Eritrean nationals residing in the United States who are subject to final orders of removal. Due to lack of travel document issuance, ICE continues to be compelled to release Eritrea nationals into U.S. communities, some with serious criminal convictions, including violent offenses and drug convictions.

There are more than 1,900 Cambodian nationals residing in the United States who are subject to a final order of removal, of whom 1,412 have criminal convictions. Due to lack of travel document issuance, ICE continues to be compelled to release Cambodian nationals into U.S. communities, some with serious criminal convictions, including weapons and sex offenses, and drug convictions.

Specific sanctions effective September 13, 2017 are listed below:


The U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia has discontinued the issuance of B visas (temporary visitors for business or pleasure) for Cambodian Ministry of Foreign Affairs employees, with the rank of Director General and above, and their families.

The U.S. Embassy in Asmara, Eritrea has discontinued the issuance of all B visas (temporary visitors for business or pleasure).

The United States Embassy in Conakry, Guinea has discontinued the issuance of B visas (temporary visitors for business or pleasure), and F, J, and M visas (temporary visitors for student and exchange programs) to Guinean government officials and their immediate family members.

The United States Embassy in Freetown, Sierra Leone has discontinued the issuance of B visas (temporary visitors for business or pleasure) to Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials and immigration officials.

Last Published Date: September 13, 2017

Give them FAKE travel documents and get them out of here

Originally Posted by Beezer

Give them FAKE travel documents and get them out of here

LOL!! LOVE IT!!