On his first day of being president of the United States, Joe Biden signed 17 proclamations to reverse the majority of Trump’s executive orders. One of the proclamations he signed is the one on “Ending Discriminatory Bans on Entry to The United States“, the revocation of executive order 13780 which banned the entry of nationals of 13 countries: Eritrea, Iran, Kyrgyzstan, Libya, Myanmar, Nigeria, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Venezuela, and Yemen.
What was this ‘Muslin’ and ‘African’ ban to the United States?
We won’t go into more details about those old executive orders, as they are gone now! We will just give a very short summary in order for you to understand the challenge.
The former president, Donald Trump, signed Executive Order 13769 in effect on January 27, 2017. According to his Administration, it was supposed to “protect the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States” by denying entry of citizens of countries mostly Muslim.
This order provoked such a huge mess and widespread protest, millions of people affected, thousands of people blocked at airports, unbelievable! It resulted in legal intervention against it. On March 6, 2017, Executive Order 13769 was superseded by Executive Order 13780 which was slightly different. This last one amended some provisions of the first one and removed some countries from the list, but it was still there!
On January 31, 2020, the Trump administration announced the expansion of the travel ban on six more countries mostly African… At that time, the travel bans affected citizens of 13 countries in total.
Finally, Executive order 13780 has been revoked by Joe Biden on his first day at the White House, on January 20, 2021, giving back religious freedom and tolerance.
Currently, there is no more travel ban for the 13 countries above, except temporary global bans still in effect due to COVID19.
What are the other bans?
All bans related to a risk to the US Labor Market due to COVID19 have expired or been revoked.
There were 2 Proclamations:
- For Immigrants (Presidential Proclamation 10014): effective from April 24, 2020. It suspended the issuance of new immigrant visas to applicants who were outside the United States. It has been revoked on February 25, 2021.
- For Nonimmigrants (Presidential Proclamation 10052): effective from June 22, 2020, and partially effective from October 1, 2020, due to the injunction ordered by District Court Judge Jeffrey White on October 1, 2020. It suspended the issuance of new nonimmigrant visas to applicants who were outside the United States. It expired on March 31, 2021.
What bans are still effective today?
The only travel bans still effective today are related to the risk of transmitting the Corona Virus.
Many countries have implemented a travel ban and confinement to flatten the curve of new cases. We strongly believe these measures are needed to save many lives. Unfortunately, these measures have no end date and are effective until further notice by President Joe Biden, who works closely with CDC. It surely won’t be lifted before CDC feels safe for people to travel again.
Entry to the United States is banned for people who transited or have been in China, Iran, the European Schengen Area (PP 9993), the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Brazil, or South Africa in the past 14 days, with some exceptions. You can check here on the CDC website the latest travel bans in effect with the exception rules. If this affects you, you can still go over these travel bans by staying 14 days in a country not on the list above before entering the United States.
The goal is to not transmit the Corona Virus upon your arrival.
To know if one of those bans (risk of transmitting Corona Virus or risk to the US labor market) affects you, check here.
