House Democrats passed a bill to repeal Trump’s travel bans

House Democrats passed a bill to repeal Trump’s travel bans

Demonstrators gather near the White House to protest President Donald Trump’s travel ban on seven Muslim countries on January 29, 2017, in Washington, DC. | Zach Gibson/Getty Images

The Senate isn’t likely to consider the bill, but it signals a key Democratic priority ahead of the presidential election.

Even amid the pandemic, House Democrats are keeping a focus on President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda: They passed a bill on Wednesday that would repeal the travel ban on citizens of 13 countries and limit his authority to issue such sweeping bans in the future.

The bill — the “NO BAN Act,” which passed 233-183 — will almost certainly go nowhere in Republican-led Senate, where several Democrat-led immigration bills have languished. But it allows Democrats to contrast themselves with Trump ahead of the presidential election and present themselves as a party that welcomes immigrants, rather than keeping them out.

The bill would also strengthen existing prohibitions on religious discrimination in visa applications, which are guaranteed by the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA). Immigrant advocates have praised the House’s measure as a means of protecting the rights of American Muslims.

Democrats are hopeful that former Vice President Joe Biden will prioritize the legislation should he win the presidential election this fall. He could quickly repeal Trump’s travel bans via executive order, but the bill would provide more lasting protection against such bans in any future administration.

“It’s a very clear signal about what the House Democratic Caucus stands for,” Tom Jawetz, vice president of immigration policy at the Center for American Progress think tank, said. “An incoming Biden Administration can and should eliminate these bans by the stroke of a pen on day one. But that act itself will not stop a future administration from using trying to shape an immigration system in his or her own anti-immigrant, racist image. This bill imposes important procedural and substantive constraints on that authority.”

But the bill is only a piece of what should constitute broader immigration reform efforts if Biden assumes the presidency, Rep. Pramila Jayapal said.

“My sincere hope and we’re going to be pushing for comprehensive, humane immigration reform that really addresses the broken pieces of immigration law that we currently have,” she said. “That is absolutely essential.”

The No Ban Act would prevent future travel bans

The No Ban Act would vacate Trump’s existing travel bans on countries his administration deems to be threats to national security, as well as put in place measures to prevent future such bans.

Under the first version of the Trump’s travel ban, unveiled in January 2017, citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, including those who held US green cards and dual US citizenship, were held for questioning for many hours at airports across the country and were denied entry to the US. A de facto “Muslim ban,” the policy appeared to be the execution of Trump’s call on the campaign trail for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the US and sparked widespread protests throughout the country.

That ban was amended in the face of court challenges; the version of the ban now in place — the third Trump has issued — was upheld by the US Supreme Court in June 2018. It places restrictions on citizens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, and North Korea who seek to enter the US. Citizens of those countries are barred from obtaining any kind of visas, largely preventing them from entering the US. (Chad was taken off the list of countries subject to the ban after it met the Trump administration’s demands to share information with US authorities that could aid in efforts to vet foreigners.)

The administration expanded the ban in February to also place restrictions on immigrants from six additional nations: Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. Citizens of those countries can still visit the US and obtain temporary work and student visas, but for the most part, they aren’t allowed to settle in the US permanently.

The No Ban Act would dial back the president’s authority to issue such bans under the Immigration and Nationality Act, which was “not intended to provide carte blanche authority to the President to ban large categories of individuals without justification, or to rewrite immigration laws with which he disagrees,” Chair Jerrold Nadler said on the House floor Wednesday.

The INA currently bans discrimination in the issuance of visas only on the basis of “race, sex, nationality, place of birth and place of residence.” There is no provision prohibiting religious discrimination, which made it more difficult for immigrant advocates to argue that the travel ban was unlawful.

The No Ban Act would amend the current law to require that any travel ban be temporary, based on credible evidence, subject to congressional oversight, and be created only in response to specific actions foreign entities have taken to threaten the US. The bill also states that a ban must also advance a compelling government interest in the least restrictive way possible.

These proposals have been praised by immigration advocates, like those at the National Immigration Law Center, who said they would “ensure that future presidents would not be allowed to issue orders based so clearly on anti-Muslim bias or any other religion-based animus and that every visa applicant would receive individual consideration.”

But the Trump administration has argued that the bill will pose a threat to US national security, divert resources away from cooperating with foreign governments to improve screening, and diminish what has recently been a critical tool for combatting Covid-19. In recent months, Trump has blocked all travelers who have been in China, Iran, Europe, and Brazil within the last 14 days.

“[T]he President’s authority to restrict travel into the United States has been central to the Administration’s ongoing efforts to safeguard the American people against the spread of COVID-19,” the White House said in a statement in March, threatening to veto the bill. “At a minimum, [the bill] would cause dangerous delays that threaten the safety, security, and health of the American people.”

The No Ban Act has a narrow exception that allows the president to institute travel bans during public health crises, including the current pandemic — an exception that Republicans have argued is too narrow.

Rep. Doug Collins, a Republican from Georgia, said Wednesday that Trump’s move to block Chinese nationals at the outset of the pandemic was critical to staving off coronavirus transmission.

“Democrats want to take away the President’s power to keep Americans safe,” he said.

But Jawetz said that the bill was carefully drafted to ensure that no future administration will have its hands tied in responding to public health emergencies. It merely requires that the decision to block broad classes of foreigners be based on sound evidence, preventing “an opportunist administration from using a public health crisis to impose a broader ban” than is necessary, he added.


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Author: Nicole Narea

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