Visa holders from seven countries named in President Trump’s Jan. 27 executive order have had their visas “provisionally” revoked without notice.
The order targeting individuals traveling from the Muslim-majority countries caused major disruptions at U.S. airports over the weekend, and resulted in a court order halting provisions of the ban from being implemented.
Despite Saturday’s ruling from a federal judge in New York, and from other federal courts, the State Department has proceeded to deny entry to valid visa holders.
“At the request of the Department of Homeland Security, and in compliance with the President’s Executive Order, the Department of State provisionally revoked relevant visas as defined under the EO (executive order),” a State Department official wrote in an email. “Those visas are not valid for travel to the U.S. while the Executive Order is in place.”
The order means visa holders from the seven countries will not be able to enter the United States.
“The revocation has no impact on the legal status of those already in the United States,” the official continued.
The president’s action halted the refugee resettlement program for 120 days, and barred refugees from Syria indefinitely. A 90-day suspension was put in place for anyone traveling from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Somalia and Yemen. A memo from Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Edward J. Ramotowskie, sent on Jan. 27 briefly outlines the revocation. It does not apply to certain diplomatic visas or those fund to be in “the national interest.”
The memo was filed in Massachusetts Federal Court on Tuesday as part of pending litigation filed by the ACLU of Massachusetts against the travel ban.
Carol Rose, executive director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, released a statement Wednesday evening regarding the newly released U.S. State Department memo.
“The ACLU of Massachusetts believes the timing and release of the Department of State’s memo is deeply suspicious — and raises more questions than it answers,” Rose said.
“Since Friday, President Trump’s executive order has stranded travelers, upended families, disrupted businesses and institutions globally, and resulted in the firing of the Acting Attorney General.”
“We find it deeply troubling that — just a few days from the first hearing in the nation on the executive order — the government is claiming to have revoked the visas of thousands of people without whispering a word about it to them, to the courts evaluating the executive order, or to anyone else.”
The ACLU of Massachusetts filed the suit late Saturday. An amended complaint was filed Wednesday naming seven individual plaintiffs, five of whom are lawful permanent residents, as well as the organization Oxfam America Inc. The University of Massachusetts and the commonwealth of Massachusetts are named as intervenor plaintiffs.
“In other words: if an Executive Order looks like a Muslim ban, acts like a Muslim ban, and has been talked about as a Muslim ban, then it’s probably a Muslim ban,” the ACLU attorneys wrote in the complaint.