Tag Archives: Libya

Newsweek: Trump administration announces major tourist visa change

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The State Department is proposing a rule requiring some business and tourist visa applicants to post a bond of up to $15,000 to enter the United States, a step critics say could put the process out of reach for many.

According to a notice set for publication on Tuesday in the Federal Register, the department plans a 12‑month pilot program targeting applicants from countries with high visa overstay rates and weak internal document security.

Under the plan, applicants could be required to post bonds of $5,000, $10,000 or $15,000 when applying for a visa.

Why It Matters

This move marks a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and revisits a controversial measure briefly introduced during Trump’s first term.

A previous version of the policy was issued in November 2020, but was never fully enacted due to the collapse in global travel during the COVID-19 pandemic. That version targeted about two dozen countries, most of them in Africa, with overstay rates exceeding 10 percent.

What To Know

The new visa bond program will take effect on August 20, according to documents reviewed by Newsweek and a notice previewed Monday on the Federal Register website. The Department of Homeland Security says the goal is to ensure the U.S. government doesn’t incur costs when a visitor violates visa terms.

“Aliens applying for visas as temporary visitors for business or pleasure and who are nationals of countries identified by the department as having high visa overstay rates, where screening and vetting information is deemed deficient, or offering citizenship by investment, if the alien obtained citizenship with no residency requirement, may be subject to the pilot program,” it said.

Under the plan, U.S. consular officers can require a bond from visa applicants who meet certain criteria. This includes nationals of countries with high visa overstay rates, countries with deficient screening and vetting, and those that offer citizenship-by-investment programs, particularly where citizenship is granted without a residency requirement.

Visitors subject to the bond will receive it back upon leaving the U.S., naturalizing as a citizen, or in the event of death. If a traveler overstays, however, the bond may be forfeited and used to help cover the costs associated with their removal.

Citizens of countries in the Visa Waiver Program are exempt, and consular officers will retain the discretion to waive the bond on a case-by-case basis.

What Countries Could End Up Being Affected

The U.S. government has not provided an estimate of how many applicants may be affected. However, 2023 data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that countries with particularly high visa overstay rates include Angola, Liberia, Mauritania, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Cabo Verde, Burkina Faso, and Afghanistan.

The list of affected countries will be published at least 15 days before the program begins and may be updated with similar notice. In the 2020 version of the pilot, countries such as Afghanistan, Angola, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Congo, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Liberia, Libya, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen were included.

What People Are Saying

The public notice stated: “The Pilot Program will help the Department assess the continued reliance on the untested historical assumption that imposing visa bonds to achieve the foreign policy and national security goals of the United States remains too cumbersome to be practical.”

Andrew Kreighbaum, a journalist covering immigration, posted on X: “It’s getting more expensive for many business and tourist travelers to enter the U.S. On top of new visa integrity fees, the State Department is imposing visa bonds as high as $15,000.”

What Happens Next

Visa bonds have been proposed in the past but have not been implemented. The State Department has traditionally discouraged the requirement because of the cumbersome process of posting and discharging a bond and because of possible misperceptions by the public.

There’s always a country that wants your money — go where you’re wanted and the heck with Amerika!

Trump administration announces major tourist visa change
The State Department says the measure is intended to ensure the government does not incur costs if a visitor violates visa terms.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-admin-visas-tourist-business-major-change-2108642

Newsweek: Man who came to US as young child faces deportation after over 30 years

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Karem Tadros, who has lived in the United States for more than 30 years after immigrating from Egypt with his family, who are all U.S. citizens, faces deportation to an unspecified country following his release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New Jersey, he told Newsweek in a Friday phone interview.

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His citizenship process was halted due to his 2006 conviction, telling Newsweek it was for “intent to distribute oxycodone.” He said, “I was on the right path. I made a terrible mistake when I was younger.”

He spent six days in a county jail and was released on bail, completing his probation afterwards, he said. “Because of that, I was detained at Hudson County facility for 13 months. And I was released by the judge on a court date with no supervision, no nothing. So 17 years go by, now it’s 2025, I haven’t seen a single ICE officer since I was detained back in 2008, 2009,” he added.

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On June 16, Tadros was granted a Writ of Habeas Corpus, as U.S. District Judge for the District of New Jersey, Evelyn Padin, found the “petitioner has remained in perfect compliance with the conditions of release dictated in the April 9, 2009 Order of Supervision.”

The judge found it was “unlawful” for the government to keep Tadros detained and ordered his release.

The judge’s order stated that “ICE may identify a third country within thirty to sixty days of this order to which the Petitioner may be removed.” The judge denied the Trump administration’s request to place an ankle monitor on Tadros. He must stay within the tri-state area.

Man who came to US as young child faces deportation after over 30 years
Karem Tadros, who was born in Egypt, has lived in New Jersey for over three decades and now faces deportation to a third country.

https://www.newsweek.com/man-faces-deportation-after-30-years-2088572

Sacramento Bee: Seven Men Deported in Violation of Court Order, Judge Says

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U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy has criticized the Trump administration for expediting the deportation of seven men to South Sudan, violating court orders and due process. The administration reportedly failed to provide sufficient notice before these actions, jeopardizing the deportees’ safety. Murphy has allowed the convicted individuals to remain in U.S. custody abroad on a military base in Djibouti, where they can raise concerns about potential violence in South Sudan.

Murphy wrote, “Defendants have mischaracterized this Court’s order, while at the same time manufacturing the very chaos they decry.” Murphy added, “By racing to get six class members onto a plane to unstable South Sudan, clearly in breach of the law and this Court’s order, Defendants gave this Court no choice but to find that they were in violation of the Preliminary Injunction.”

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Murphy wrote, “From this course of conduct, it is hard to come to any conclusion other than that defendants invite lack of clarity as a means of evasion.”

Seven Men Deported in Violation of Court Order, Judge Says
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy has criticized the Trump administration for expediting the deportation of seven men to South Sudan, violating court orders and due process. The administration reportedly failed to provide sufficient notice before these actions, jeopardizing the deportees’ safety. Murphy has allowed the convicted individuals to remain in U.S. custody abroad on aContinue reading “Seven Men Deported in Violation of Court Order,…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/seven-men-deported-in-violation-of-court-order-judge-says/ar-AA1GJqtr

Rolling Stone: Trump Allegedly Violates Court Order, Sends Asian Immigrants to South Sudan

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The administration reportedly deported two men from Myanmar and Vietnam to war-torn South Sudan

After an appeals court declined to remove an injunction aimed at barring Donald Trump’s administration from deporting noncitizens to “third-party countries” – a country that is not their country of origin – without due process, and without giving them chance to raise concerns of persecution, torture, and death, the government allegedly violated that court order days later.

Two men, who are originally from Myanmar and Vietnam and were being held in U.S. immigration custody, were deported to war-torn South Sudan, according their lawyers, Politico reported. Their lawyers said they received the a notice of the deportation plan on Monday evening and that by Tuesday morning, they were on a plane with 10 other deportees.

Earlier this month, as Rolling Stone reported, the Trump administration was preparing to use a military plane to fly immigrants to Libya before Judge Brian Murphy clarified that doing so would violate his court order. Lawyers with the National Immigration Litigation Alliance, the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, and Human Rights warned that “Laotian, Vietnamese, and Philippine” immigrants, who are being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas, were “being prepared for removal to Libya, a county notorious for its human rights violations, especially with respect to migrant residents.”

Lawyers for the Burmese man, per Politico, said he was originally scheduled to be on a flight to Libya, before the plan was abandoned amid media and legal scrutiny. The attorneys also said that the man, identified as N.M. in court papers, received notification about the deportation to South Sudan only in English, violating Judge Murphy’s previous order due to N.M.’s limited English proficiency.

Sudan and South Sudan are on the U.S. Department of States “do not travel” advisory list, yet King Donald and his cronies are using it for third-country deportations.

Trump Allegedly Violates Court Order, Sends Asian Immigrants to South Sudan
Two men, who are originally from Myanmar and Vietnam and were being held in U.S. immigration custody, were reportedly deported to war-torn South Sudan.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-sends-asian-immigrants-south-sudan-violates-court-1235344357

Newsweek: Donald Trump Suffers Double Deportation Loss In Hours: ‘Irreparable Harm’

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Donald Trump’s administration suffered a double legal blow on Friday when the Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals refused to lift a judge’s injunction blocking the swift deportation of illegal immigrants to a country other than their own, such as El Salvador or Libya.

Also on Friday, the Supreme Court in a 7-2 decision blocked the administration’s request to resume the rapid deportation of Venezuelan nationals using the Alien Enemies Act, a rarely used 1798 law.

Donald Trump suffers double deportation loss in hours: “Irreparable harm”
The courts have emerged as one of the main obstacles to the Trump administration’s policies.

https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-suffers-double-deportation-loss-2073578

Trump administration working on plan to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya

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Details are murky and no final agreement has been reached, but the plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libyan leadership.

The Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to 1 million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News.

The plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libya’s leadership, two people with direct knowledge of the plans and a former U.S. official said. 

In exchange for the resettling of Palestinians, the administration would potentially release to Libya billions of dollars of funds that the U.S. froze more than a decade ago, those three people said.

Ethnic cleaning, Trump style — making Gaza safe again for Israelis and a Trump Hotel!

This is just wrong in so many ways. On the plus side, perhaps Trump eventually will be jailed on an I.C.C. warrant!

Trump administration working on plan to move 1 million Palestinians to Libya
Details are murky and no final agreement has been reached, but the plan is under serious enough consideration that the administration has discussed it with Libyan leadership.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/rcna207224

Independent: Trump administration plans to send migrants to Libya’s ‘horrific’ detention centers

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Libya serves as a hub for migrants trying to get to Europe, and the country has several detention facilities for refugees and migrants

The Trump administration has developed plans to send migrants to detention centers in Libya on a military flight, according to Reuters.

The flight could depart as soon as Wednesday, officials told The New York Times. The nationalities of those set to be on the flight were not immediately apparent.

Libya is in the middle of severe conflict, and human rights groups have called its migrant detention centers “horrific” and “deplorable.”

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The State Department advises the American public against going to Libya “due to crime, terrorism, unexploded land mines, civil unrest, kidnapping, and armed conflict.”

But it’s an ok place to dump unwanted immigrants?

Trump officials plan to send migrants to Libya’s ‘horrific’ detention centers
Libya serves as a hub for migrants trying to get to Europe, and the country has several detention facilities for refugees and migrants

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/donald-trump-migrants-libya-detention-centers-b2746147.html

Wall Street Journal: U.S. Looks for More Countries to Take Migrants

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Officials say they have asked several countries in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe

These people came to the United States in search of a better life, as many millions have done over the past 250 years.

And their reward? Trump is forcibly exporting them to whatever third-world country will take them.

The Trump administration is pursuing agreements with several more countries to take migrants deported from the U.S., according to officials familiar with the matter.

Immigration officials are seeking more destinations where they can send immigrants the U.S. wants to deport, but whose countries are slow to take them back or refuse to. Their desired model builds on a one-time deal the administration struck with Panama in February, under which they sent a planeload of over 100 migrants, mostly from the Middle East, to the Central American nation. Panama then detained the migrants and worked to send them to their home countries.

The officials are in conversations with countries in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, but aren’t necessarily looking to sign formal agreements, the people said.

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Among the countries the U.S. has asked to take the deportees are Libya, Rwanda, Benin, Eswatini, Moldova, Mongolia and Kosovo.

Exclusive | U.S. Looks for More Countries to Take Migrants – WSJ

Libya, Rwanda, Benin, Eswatini, Moldova, Mongolia and Kosovo? How inhumane can they get?