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Coveted exemptions from Trump’s travel ban remain elusive for citizens of Muslim-majority countries
By Abigail Hauslohner
May 22 at 11:30 AM
President Trump’s travel ban prevented Mohammed Al-Awadhi’s Yemeni wife from joining him in Arkansas, but he was certain she would qualify for a waiver: She has a serious heart condition, she’s married to a law-abiding U.S. citizen and the rejection of her visa would tear apart their marriage and leave her in a nation ravaged by war and famine.
But Al-Awadhi has become increasingly skeptical that the Trump administration is applying its waiver standards to those who qualify. Five months after the travel ban went into effect, immigration advocates say the waivers — permission for certain citizens from the prohibited countries to travel to the U.S. based on special circumstances — have been nearly impossible to get.
The State Department says it has granted hundreds of waivers, but declined to say who received them and how. The administration has touted the existence of such waivers in defense of the travel ban — which critics have labeled a “Muslim ban” — to demonstrate that the ban is neither racist nor absolute because they allow the neediest to come to the United States.
If the Supreme Court upholds the ban, which legal analysts expect it to do in a ruling next month, the waivers and certain exceptions will be solidified as the sole route into the United States for the 150 million citizens of five Muslim-majority countries — Syria, Iran, Somalia, Libya and Al-Awadhi’s native Yemen — as well as North Korea. Certain Venezuelan government officials are also banned.
During a hearing last month, the government told the Supreme Court that more than 400 people had been cleared for waivers since the ban went into effect in December. That number has now climbed to 655.
But advocates believe the number of people who actually have received visas through waivers is much lower.
The government has provided little guidance on how to get a waiver, they say, and many visa applicants are still unaware the waiver option exists.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/coveted-waivers-for-trumps-travel-ban-remain-elusive-for-citizens-of-muslim-majority-countries/2018/05/22/d48cc8d8-48b6-11e8-827e-190efaf1f1ee_story.html?utm_term=.fa3bddec4895
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