WASHINGTON — Of all the executive orders President Trump has signed concerning immigration, there’s one that is causing the most confusion – and could severely limit the ability of people from many countries to enter the United States, even for a short visit.
That executive order has roiled immigrant communities and their advocates and refugee resettlement agencies in the state and is believed to put in peril the visas of foreign students who are attending or want to attend Minnesota colleges.
Trump has ordered the Department of Homeland Security, State Department and Director of National Intelligence to submit, in 60 days, a list of all nations that the agencies determine do not properly vet people who want to visit, live or study in the United States.
The executive order, called “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats” has been compared to the “Muslim ban” Trump implemented in his first term in office.
That ban blocked nationals from six Muslim-majority nations – including Somalia and Iran – and North Korea from entry into the United States. More than 700 travelers were detained, and up to 60,000 visas were “provisionally revoked.”
The new initiative is expected to go much farther, affecting at least 20 nations and including Gaza, Somalia, Syria and other Muslim-majority nations.
Trump’s executive order also directs the State Department and other agencies to investigate nationals from those countries who have migrated to the United States since 2021, when Trump’s last term of office ended.
“The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles …,” the executive order says.
Foreign students could lose their visas if they are arrested or expelled. But they could soon also be vulnerable to losing their right to study in the United States if they were found to participate – or have participated in – pro-Palestinian protests or support other policies or ideologies that run afoul of the new administration.
Adam Abu, vice president of Students for Justice in Palestine, a pro-Palestinian group at the University of Minnesota, said new protests have been planned at the campus since October.
“But now it’s hard for us to recommend foreign students to come to protests when they might be deported just for protesting,” he said. “(The executive order) has set a dangerous precedent for future protests.”
Among those whom Abu does not want to invite to demonstrations on campus are three students from Gaza that have recently been invited to attend the university.
‘A unified American identity’
Ana Pottratz-Acosta, a professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law who specializes in immigration law, said she “would not be shocked” if there weren’t at least 20 nations on Trump’s new ban.
But she, and others interviewed for this story, said there is no clarity on what the Trump administration will do to implement a new travel ban.
“At this point in time, it’s kind of speculative,” Pottratz-Acosta said.
Lindsey Greising, an attorney for Advocates for Human Rights, a Minneapolis-based non-profit, said the specter of a new Muslim ban has created “a rumor mill” that may discourage efforts to apply for visas to the United States.
“People still have the ability to apply for visas they are eligible for and continue to live their lives without fear,” she said.
She also said the new investigation into how foreign nations screen applicants for visas is unnecessary, since U.S. consulates in those nations “have had a strong vetting process in place for years.”
Still, the executive order is concerning, Greising said, especially since it orders federal agencies to evaluate programs “designed to ensure the proper assimilation of lawful immigrants into the United States, and recommend any additional measures to be taken that promote a unified American identity and attachment to the Constitution, laws, and founding principles of the United States.”
Greising said the terms “assimilation,” and “unified American identity” are counter to the pluralistic nature of today’s American society.
“We’re very concerned about any effort to use national security pretexts to push racists or nationalistic agendas,” she said.
Door already shut on refugees
On his first day in office, Trump also signed an executive order halting refugee admissions into the United States for at least 90 days to give the State Department time to investigate how well they are vetted.
That order also ended all federal grants to refugee resettlement organizations, which are dominated by religious organizations, like Lutheran Social Services, which has offices in St. Cloud and Minneapolis.
Since October, Lutheran Social Services has helped resettle 387 refugees from several nations, including Somalia, Afghanistan and Ukraine.
Alexis Oberdorfer of Lutheran Social Services said these refugees “have arrived with little more than the clothes they are wearing and will need financial help to pay for rent, food, medical expenses and other basic needs.”
While the organization receives private donations, most of its funding came from the federal government before Trump ended those payments. The federal government, for instance, paid for three months of each refugee’s basic living expenses.
“With federal funds frozen for these vital expenses, we are cobbling together private funds to help newly arrived refugees with their immediate needs.” Oberdorfer said.
And the door has now been shut on many refugees who have lived in camps for years and had been recently given permission to be reunited with family members in Minnesota, Oberdorfer said.
According to the State Department, there were 1,018 refugee arrivals in Minnesota from Oct. 1 through Dec. 31 of last year. More than half, or 525 came from Somalia. The next largest group came from Afghanistan (97), and Ethiopia (90).
Trump’s new version of his Muslim ban is likely to make immigration from Somalia and many troubled countries very difficult, if not impossible.
According to the State Department, in 2016, 9,000 Somalis settled in the United States. That number dropped to 980 in 2017, when Trump first entered the White House and to 149 in 2020, the last year of Trump’s first term.
Ana Radelat
Ana Radelat is MinnPost’s Washington, D.C. correspondent. You can reach her at aradelat@minnpost.com or follow her on Twitter at @radelat.
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