Wednesday February 27, 2019

People from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen most targeted by ban

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The administration revised the policy following court challenges, and the U.S. Supreme Court allowed it to largely go into effect in December 2017 while legal challenges continued. In June 2018, the high court upheld the new version of the ban.

As a result, most people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen have not been able to enter the United States for well over a year. Venezuela and North Korea also were targeted in the current policy, but those restrictions were not challenged in court.

The figures released on Tuesday show the government denied 15,384 applications for immigrant visas — given to those who want to live permanently in the United States — due to the "2017 Executive Order on Immigration." A State Department spokesperson confirmed that term referred to the travel ban policy.

This map shows the countries affected by Trump's travel ban. (CBC)

In addition, 21,645 applications for non-immigrant visas — given to people coming for short-term visits for business, tourism or other reasons — were denied due to the ban.

Approximately 2,200 visa applications that were initially denied based on the travel ban last year were resolved and approved, but it was unclear how many of those applications were initially made last year or earlier.

The data did not include how many visa applications were made by citizens from countries affected by the travel ban.

Every month, the State Department releases the numbers of visas issued to citizens of all countries, including those under the travel ban, but it does not publish equivalent monthly information on the number of visa applications or denials by country.

Other, previously released data from the State Department shows that the number of U.S. visas issued to citizens of the countries under the travel ban has dropped drastically as a result of its implementation.

In the fiscal year from Oct. 1, 2017, through Sept. 30, 2018, citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen — the five countries consistently on the travel ban list throughout its different iterations — received approximately 14,600 U.S. visas. That is down 80 per cent from approximately 72,000 visas issued for citizens of those countries in the 2016 fiscal year, when no such ban was in place.