President Donald Trump has released yet another immigration “travel ban,” which is scheduled to go into effect on October 18, 2017. This latest version contains refinements designed to address legal loopholes contained in the first two versions, and also now restricts entry into the United States for certain individuals from the two non-Muslim-majority nations of North Korea and Venezuela. Sudan has been dropped from the ban, and Chad, another Muslim-majority nation, has been added.
Under the latest ban, many foreign nationals from the impacted countries — Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen — will be banned from travel to the U.S., while in other cases, travelers will have to undergo enhanced screening and vetting requirements. Importantly for employers, however, the ban does not impact those from the impacted countries who currently have valid green cards or visas.
In a related development, the United States Supreme Court, which was set to hear arguments on the legality of the March 2017 travel ban on October 10, announced that it has cancelled the argument and instead asked the parties to submit briefs by October 5 addressing “whether, or to what extent, the [new] proclamation” may render the case moot.
The text of President Trump’s September 24 “Presidential Proclamation Enhancing Vetting Capabilities and Processes for Detecting Attempted Entry Into the United States by Terrorists or Other Public-Safety Threats” is available here.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.