Picked up from Facebook.
Subject: DO NOT TRAVEL – ANYWHERE IN 2017
Employers – please disseminate to all your employees immediately.
Our Legal advise is that NO ONE should travel – anywhere – neither international nor domestic. The current administration is issuing Executive Order’s on immigration without advance notice and with immediate effect thereby trapping and likely to trap thousands of travelers and/or rending families apart.
While the legal system tries to sort this out – you/your families may already be negatively impacted and trying to undo the harm is going to be a much longer and difficult battle than trying to avoid becoming the story.
THIS APPLIES TO EVERYONE not just those from the 7 list of countries banned for “now.
EVERYONE:
CBP is asking to review social media – scrub your phones, empty caches, delete posts from ALL social media – fb, snapchat, instagrams, twitter etc. Any and every account. Disable fingerprint unlock of your phones while traveling. If asked your opinion about Trump or love of country – be creative in your positive responses.
U.S. Citizens:
Only US Citizen’s have the legal right to DENY access to social media to anyone absent a warrant or Court Order. If US citizen and a non-white – if they ask to take your passport – ask to see a Judge – your citizenship cannot be revoked absent a judicial determination. If they take your passport – ask for receipt of same and grounds for such “confiscation”. Be polite but firm.
US citizens holding Dual citizenship – read below. You are vulnerable – not protected.
GC Holders
Do NOT sign I-407 – no matter what the pressure. I-407 means you are voluntarily renouncing your Green Card and thereby likely will be denied entry. A GC thus renounced CANNOT be re-instated. You will have to go through the whole long process that was undertaken earlier to get GC back and by then who knows what policies come into play – whether they will indeed approve issuance of such GC’s in the future.
You may be asked to prove “ties” to the US – to prove you did not abandon residence in U.S. This means work, family, property, etc.
Ask to speak to a lawyer – firmly and politely. If they refuse ask for a NTA (Notice to Appear). If the CBP Officers continue to detain you – ask for a hearing before an Immigration Judge. If the GC is confiscated, ask to be provided with alternative evidence of their LPR status, such as an I-94 and/or passport stamp that says “Evidence of Temporary Residence.” – You are ENTITLED to this.
Currently CBP’s position is that GC holder is NOT entitled to admission to the US on each entry – it will be a case by case determination. This is probably going to lead to more restrictive admissions.
Visa Holders:
No matter what visa you hold, H, L, J, F , B etc. you are the MOST vulnerable. You should absolutely NOT travel neither domestically nor internationally for the rest of 2017 till the dust settles and we can better determine what policies will continue to be implemented.
Visas are being cancelled on arrival and people are being then being banned for 5 years on grounds that they attempted to enter on cancelled visas. This is happening to people NOT on the list of the 7 countries.
1. Just because you have a US citizen child – you will NOT be allowed Entry should CBP decide to Deny entry. US citizen children were being detained over this weekend.
2. People with GC’s NOT on the list of these 7 countries – have had their GC’s taken away.
3. Privacy rules for EVERYBODY – but US Citizens have been removed – thus you cannot Deny access to your social media accounts. An Officer can pretty much deem ANYTHING as grounds to deny entry. In fact CBP Officials have REFUSED to follow the Court Orders issued this past weekend and deported people without allowing them access to lawyers or Senators/Congressman. That means you will have almost little or no recourse if you are detained/deported on attempted Entry. If they ban you for 5 years – those bans will be almost impossible to overcome in the near future.
4. CG holders and citizen’s traveling DOMESTICALLY have also been stopped, questioned and detained.
Thus, our recommendation is to STOP ALL AIR TRAVEL. The next 6 months or longer are going to be extremely rocky for everyone who is “brown” irrespective of country of nationality/religion/ethnicity.
TODAY’S UPDATE FROM DHS:
In the first 30 days, DHS will perform a global country-by-country review of the information each country provides when their citizens apply for a U.S. visa or immigration benefit. Countries will then have 60 days to comply with any requests from the U.S. government to update or improve the quality of the information they provide.”
This means there is absolutely no certainty of anyone being allowed back in should they travel. Nor is there any certainty as to what other EO’s may come out – except that they are likely to be RESTRICTIVE.
If you have any upcoming travel plans – CANCEL them. This is going to get worse – not better in the coming months.
Suishta Saigal
Attorney At Law
MADAN & SAIGAL, LLC
358 Fifth Avenue – Suite 704
New York, NY