The Travel Ban: A Policy of Family Separation
Discriminatory family separation has been a policy of the current U.S. administration for some time now, beginning in the first days of the Trump’s presidency with the Travel Ban and extending to today with recent policies such as the zero-tolerance policy on the southern border and the Refugee Ban. While on its face, the Travel Ban may not appear to be a policy of family separation, countless cases of American families separated from loved ones since its inception demonstrate otherwise.
In the first two iterations of the Travel Ban, each shot down by the courts, a waiver provision granting entry to those banned did not exist. In an attempt to keep the Travel Ban in legal play, the administration introduced the waiver provision in their third and final Travel Ban. Despite some justices’ concerns about the waiver provisions, the Supreme Court upheld the ban in a 5–4 decision.
When the Travel Ban waivers were first instituted, many hoped that they could prove to the consular officers reviewing their cases that they were not a national security threat and they were only trying to connect with their family members and partners already in the U.S. But since its implementation, very few applicants have received waivers. According to the data from the most recent report by the State Department, only 5.1% of total applicants had been cleared for a waiver since waiver provisions were implemented in December 2017. The applicants are not the problem in this situation. Rather, it is the waivers that have proven themselves merely window-dressing so that the administration can keep its discriminatory policy in place — leaving families with shattered hopes and growing frustration.
Take Brian Swank and his fiancée, Mehraneh Rayatidamavandi, for example. New Jersey resident Brian met the love of his life, Mehraneh, while studying at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, where Mehraneh was studying as a visiting research scholar working on her Ph.D. Upon completion of her research in the U.S., Mehraneh was required to return to her home country of Iran for two years before being able to get another visa and move back to the United States. While they knew this transitional period would be tough, the knowledge that they would be together again soon kept their hopes up — until the Travel Ban was implemented. Despite having already passed intensive background checks to get her previous visa, Mehraneh remains separated from her love because of the discriminatory Travel Ban. It has been over a year since her initial interview with the consulate and they know nothing more than that her application is at the “administrative processing” status. She, like many others, are finding themselves stuck on this stage for months, even years, with no clear end in sight and no ability to make plans for the future they want together.
Brian’s story is heartbreaking, but not unique — there are countless other heartbreaking stories like theirs, from American families all across the country. There’s the permanent resident whose Iranian sister was to come to the U.S. for cancer treatment but ended up dying of cancer while her visa status was stuck on “administrative processing.” Or the Iranian permanent resident whose family has not been able to meet his son who was born a year and a half ago. In consideration of stories like these, as well as the failure of our courts to recognize the Travel Ban and its waiver provision for their fraudulence, the need for congressional action is clear.
The NO BAN Act, introduced in Congress earlier this year, does just that. The NO BAN Act not only repeals all iterations of the Travel, Asylum, and Refugee Bans but also creates more mechanisms and requires congressional oversight before any administration can enact similar discriminatory policies. The bill is the most comprehensive legislation introduced to repeal the Travel Ban to date. With no end in sight for the Travel Ban or its bogus waiver provision, this legislation may be the only option for American citizens like Brian who are looking to build their families with the ones they love.
