US Congress passes Laken Riley Act
The legislation, intended to enforce harsher detention policies for undocumented migrants, contains a provision that greatly enhances states’ powers to block the issuing of US visas to countries deemed recalcitrant – or uncooperative – by the new administration.
The US House gave the Bill its final approval on January 23 – with 46 Democrats supporting the Act – sending the proposal to President Trump’s desk in an “early win” for his hardline immigration policies. The act is set to be the first bill Trump will sign as the 47th president.
Sector stakeholders have warned of the “significant impacts” of the legislation for international students, highlighting the “tremendous anxiety and uncertainty” it would cause, said President’s Alliance CEO Miriam Felblum.
Laken Riley, the 22-year-old university student for whom the act was named, was killed in February last year by a Venezuelan migrant who had been arrested for shoplifting and released on parole.
Critics say the Act would give states the ability to override immigration decisions that have historically been under the authority of the US federal government.
A state could sue to cease visa issuance to entire countries
American Immigration Lawyers Association
“The provisions in this Bill would allow individual states to dictate immigration policy for the nation by allowing states to sue the government. Further, a state could sue to cease visa issuance to entire countries,” said the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA), urging Senators not to pass the act.
Recalcitrant countries are defined as those that are slow to or do not accept their nationals whom the US seeks to deport.
As of mid-2020, the State Department’s list of 13 recalcitrant countries included India and China, the US’s largest source markets of international students.
Other countries on the list whose nationals could be barred from receiving US visas include Bhutan, Burundi, Cambodia, Cuba, Eritrea, Hong Kong, Iran, Iraq, Laos, Pakistan and Russia.
As the legislation comfortably passed the House with a vote of 263 to 158, immigrant rights and civil rights groups have accused the Democrats of “caving” to Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
The Bill follows a slew of executive orders issued during Trump’s first days in office, including an “enhanced vetting” order, which stakeholders fear could have implications for international students coming to the US.
NAFSA, the national association for international higher education, has called on US educators to prepare and stay informed of immigration announcements from the Trump-Vance administration, in order to support international faculty and students.
“This is not the first crisis that we have weathered over the last few years. Resilience of educators is something we are proud of and will get us through these uncertain times,” said Ahmad Ezzeddine, the new president of NAFSA’s board of directors.
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