Month: June 2017

President Donald Trump spoke with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Friday to discuss the ongoing feud between Qatar and several Arab states, a conflict that some are calling the worst Gulf Arab crisis in years.

Trump and Erdogan talked by phone to discuss how to resolve the dispute “while ensuring all countries work together to stop terrorist funding and to combat extremist ideology,” the White House said in a statement.

Turkey has been a supporter of Qatar, whose ties with some of its Gulf and Arab neighbors were severed after Qatar was accused of funding terrorism and fomenting regional instability. Qatar denies the accusations. Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates cut ties with Qatar.
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President Donald Trump’s modified travel ban has been implemented with little immediate protest as immigration lawyers gathered at U.S. airports to aid travelers from six affected countries.

The U.S. activated the new rules Thursday evening, requiring visa applicants from six majority-Muslim nations to have a “bona fide” relationship with a family member or business in the U.S. to be admitted into the country.

Before the rollout, senior administration officials explained how consular officials should proceed with the visa applications for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

Anyone in transit to the U.S. with travel scheduled before July 6 will be allowed to enter. Those with travel booked after that date will be addressed “later,” according to senior administration officials.

Previously scheduled visa application appointments will not be canceled, administration officials said, but all new applicants will have to prove their bona fide relationship to a family member or business in the U.S. in addition to passing traditional screening.

Acceptable close family relationships include a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling who already is in the United States.

Relationships that do not meet the requirement include grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, fiance or other extended family. The officials said these distinctions were based on those included in the Immigration and Naturalization Act.

First court suit

Late Thursday, the Trump administration added fiance to the acceptable list after Hawaii filed an emergency motion in federal court, asking a judge to clarify that the ban can’t be enforced against relatives, including fiances, not mentioned in the administration’s guidelines.

U.S. District Court Judge Derrick Watson ordered the Justice Department to respond by Monday and gave Hawaii until July 6 for a rebuttal.

“I think the Supreme Court actually laid it out very clearly,” New York Immigration Coalition Director of Political Engagement Murad Awawdeh told VOA. “A bona fide relationship is anyone who has a relationship with anyone in the United States or an American entity. And for the department of state to come out with such a new version of what that word actually means, it is kind of disheartening.”

He added that the Trump administration is trying to “redefine what family means.”

Awawdeh spoke Thursday at an anti-travel ban protest of about 150 people in New York’s Washington Square.

Also at the protest was Yemeni American Widad Hassan, who says that choosing between family and country is nothing new. Her sister-in-law and newborn nephew are in Yemen, while her brother is in the U.S., unable to reunite with his family.

“Do they leave to join their family in Yemen or do they stay here? So, that is pretty much how the ban has impacted us,” said Hassan, adding that the battle is a recurring one. “It is just mentally and emotionally draining, especially when you have family members who are being directly impacted by it.”

“Hey hey! Ho ho! Syrian refugees have got to go!” shouted an older white man, hoisting a black-and-white “Keep Syrians Out” poster outside a #NoMuslimBanEver Emergency Town Hall in New York.

Travel ban supporter Pauline Pujol told VOA, “I think Donald Trump is 100% correct. He is protecting the country. A president is supposed to protect the country; there is nothing racist about it. It’s about security.”

Refugee numbers

A 120-day ban on refugees and yearly cap of 50,000 total refugees coming to the United States also went into effect Thursday evening; however, any refugee who can prove a relationship to a family member in the U.S. may be allowed entry.

Senior administration officials said 49,009 refugees had been admitted to the U.S. in fiscal year 2017 as of Wednesday night, nearing the cap three-quarters of the way through the fiscal year that begins in October. But the cap is likely to be exceeded as additional refugees are accepted on the basis of family ties. Officials said about half of refugees admitted to the U.S. have family in the country.

The Supreme Court partially reinstated the president’s executive order limiting travel after it was halted by two lower courts. The high court will hold its own hearing on the legal challenges in October.

Trump says the order is necessary to protect national security, with the entry freezes meant to give the government time to strengthen vetting procedures.
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The U.S. House of Representatives took the first steps Thursday toward fulfilling two key Trump campaign promises: strengthening penalties on undocumented immigrants who return to the U.S. after being deported and cutting federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities – those that choose not to work with immigration agents. VOA’s congressional reporter Katherine Gypson looks at what that will mean for grieving families and for undocumented immigrants across the country.
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U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers will be key players in putting President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban into effect on Thursday, affecting visitors from six mostly Muslim countries.

They are the officers dressed in blue who are stationed at airports and border crossings and screen people coming into the U.S. They stamp passports, inspect travel documents, confiscate drugs and other illicit items and make sure belongings and purchases are properly declared.

Customs and Border Protection officers were embroiled in chaos when an earlier version of President Donald Trump’s travel ban took effect, forcing them to turn away visa holders who were later allowed in. They will be in the mix again for the new ban affecting visitors from Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Iran and Yemen.

Here’s a look at what they do:

Wat is customs and border protection?

The agency was created as part of the Department of Homeland Security in 2003 after attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Its largest division – the Office of Field Operations – admits people and goods at 328 airports, land crossings and seaports. They admitted 390 million travelers during the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, including 119 million at airports.

Much of the work done by the agency is at border crossings along the U.S.-Mexico border.

The busiest point of entry is San Diego’s San Ysidro crossing with Tijuana, Mexico, with 31.8 million admissions during the latest 12-month period, an average of 87,000 a day. El Paso, Texas, across from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, was second-busiest with 28.8 million admissions, followed by San Diego’s Otay Mesa crossing (17.8 million), Laredo, Texas (17.7 million), and New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (15.9 million).

The travel ban will mostly affect airports because that’s how visitors from the six countries generally arrive. Aside from JFK, the only airports to crack the top 20 in passenger volume are Miami International (No. 11), Los Angeles International (No. 12) and San Francisco International (No. 20).

How will officiers enforce the tranvel ban?

The Trump administration on Wednesday set new criteria for visa applicants from the six countries and all refugees that require a “close” family or business tie to the United States.

Visas that have already been approved will not be revoked, but instructions issued by the State Department say that new applicants from the six countries must prove a relationship with a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling already in the United States to be eligible. The same requirement, with some exceptions, holds for would-be refugees from all nations that are still awaiting approval for admission to the U.S.

Grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancees or other extended family members are not considered to be close relationships, according to the guidelines that were issued in a cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates late on Wednesday. The new rules take effect at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Thursday (0000GMT on Friday), according to the cable, which was obtained by The Associated Press.

The task falls largely to the State Department but Customs and Border Protection officers would get involved if someone from one of the six countries arrived without a visa or there was a reason to question the validity of their documents.

What illegal activity do officers find?

Agents primarily seize drugs and stop people seeking to enter the country illegally.

Drugs – increasingly heroin and methamphetamine – are commonly smuggled into the United States by car from Mexico. People enter the country illegally by hiding in trunks or by using someone else’s travel documents.

Officers denied admission 274,821 times at airports, land crossings and seaports during the latest fiscal year, an increase of 8 percent from the same period a year earlier. They seized 257 tons of marijuana, 26.3 tons of cocaine, 18.8 tons of methamphetamine and 2.1 tons of heroin.

An estimated 40 percent of people in the country illegally overstay their visas, and one of the agency’s top priorities is to better track them. The absence of a system for people to check out when the leave the country makes that a daunting and expensive endeavor. Homeland Security said in May that nearly 740,000 foreigners overstayed visas during the latest fiscal year, and that was only for those who arrived by plane or ship.

Is it different than border control?

The Border Patrol is another division within the agency. Customs and Border Protection agents wear blue uniforms and patrol ports of entry. Border Patrol agents work areas between and wear green uniforms.

Customs and Border Protection is the nation’s largest law enforcement agency, with about 60,000 employees and an annual budget of $13.5 billion. Trump has requested 21 percent spending increase, partly to build a wall on the border with Mexico and hire more Border Patrol agents.

What about the staffing shortage?

The Trump administration said this month that it has 1,400 vacancies for officers at ports of entry. Customs and Border Protection has struggled to fill jobs for years, largely because an unusually high number of applicants fail a pass a polygraph that has been a hiring requirement since 2012. One official recently said 75 percent failed, more than double the average among law enforcement agencies surveyed by The Associated Press.

The House of Representatives passed a bill this month to waive the polygraph requirement for many veterans and some other applicants. Customs and Border Protection recently said it was easing some physical fitness and language requirements in hiring.

The administration has called for expanding the Border Patrol by 5,000 agents but has not proposed any increase in officers at airports, land crossings and seaports.
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The United States is hours away from implementing new travel rules requiring visa applicants from six majority-Muslim nations to have a close relationship with a family member or business in the U.S. in order to be eligible to be admitted to the country.

Senior administration officials Thursday outlined how consular officials should proceed with the visa applications for people from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

The new rules will be implemented at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday.

Anyone in transit to the U.S. with travel scheduled before July 6 will be allowed to enter. Those with travel booked after will be addressed “later,” according to senior administration officials.

Previously scheduled visa application appointments will not be cancelled, administration officials said, but all new applicants would have to prove their bona fide relationship to a family member or business in the U.S. in addition to passing traditional screening.

“We expect business as usual at ports of entry starting at 8 p.m.,” the officials said, anticipating a smooth roll-out. Implementation of a first version of the travel order in January was met with protests at airports around the country.

Refugees

Although a 120-day ban on refugees and yearly cap of 50,000 total refugees coming to the United States also comes into effect Thursday evening, any refugee who can prove a relationship to a family member in the U.S. may be allowed entry.

Senior administration officials said 49,009 refugees had been admitted to the U.S. in fiscal year 2017 as of Wednesday night, nearing the cap three quarters of the way through the fiscal year that begins in October. But the cap is likely to be exceeded as additional refugees are accepted on the basis of family ties. Officials said about half of refugees admitted to the U.S. have family in the country.

Acceptable vs unacceptable relationships

Acceptable close family relationships include a parent, spouse, child, adult son or daughter, son-in-law, daughter-in-law or sibling who is already in the United States.

Relationships that do not meet the requirement include grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, fiancee or other extended family.

An acceptable business relationship has to be “formal, documented,” and not created for the purpose of evading the travel ban. Something like a hotel reservation would not meet the requirement.

The guidance comes days after the Supreme Court partially reinstated an executive order limiting travel by President Donald Trump that had been held up by lower courts on the grounds that it is unconstitutional. The court will hold its own hearing on the legal challenges in October.

In their decision announced Monday, the justices said only visitors who can prove they have a “bona fide relationship” in the United States would be admitted, but did not give a definition of what an acceptable relationship was in terms of who should be exempt from the ban.

Lawyers ready to offer help at airports

Some U.S. immigration lawyers say many of their clients from the six affected countries are still filled with uncertainty. A number of attorneys plan to set themselves up at international airports ready to offer help, as they did when the original executive order was put in place.

Trump says the order is necessary to protect national security, with the entry freezes meant to give the government time to strengthen vetting procedures.

 
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A 25-year-old Ohio man pleaded guilty to allegations he was involved in a terrorist plot in 2015, according to newly unsealed legal documents.

Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud was charged by a federal grand jury with providing material support to terrorists, providing support to a designated terrorist organization, and of lying to the FBI about international terrorism. His guilty plea was sealed until Thursday because of an open investigation.

Acting Assistant Attorney General Dana J. Boente said Thursday, “Mohamud admitted to traveling overseas, providing material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization, and receiving training from terrorists. He also admitted to returning to the United States and planning to conduct an attack on American soil. He will now be held accountable for his crimes.”

Mohamud was born in Somalia and came to the United States when he was two years old. According to court records, his brother was fighting in Syria by 2013, and Mohamud provided material support to him from the United States.

Mohamud became a naturalized citizen in 2014, promptly submitting an application for a passport, and buying a one-way ticket for Athens, Greece, with a layover in Istanbul, Turkey. When he landed in Istanbul, instead of flying on to Athens, he travelled to Syria and joined the al-Nusrah Front, with the help of his brother.

In Syria, he trained with weapons and engaged in combat. Court documents indicated that he “expressed a desire to die fighting in Syria.”

Instead, he was instructed by al-Nusrah to return to the United States and commit an act of terror. He recruited several U.S.-based people to help him carry out “something big,” before being questioned by the FBI.

Boente said, “We will remain vigilant in our efforts to identify, disrupt, and bring to justice those who provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations and seek to conduct attacks on our homeland.”

 
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Both chambers of Congress are readying legislation to bar Americans from traveling to North Korea after the death of a U.S. citizen held by Pyongyang and amid the continued detention of three others.

“There’s no question we shouldn’t have people on a willy-nilly basis going to North Korea,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said Wednesday. “We should have a travel ban, and we’re working on legislation right now.”

“We need to protect Americans and I think we need to restrict access by Americans because we can’t protect them [in North Korea],” said the committee’s top Democrat, Ben Cardin of Maryland.

The perils of travel to North Korea were highlighted earlier this month by the death of 22-year-old American student Otto Warmbier, who was imprisoned in the country for allegedly stealing a poster, and then was returned to the United States in a coma with fatal brain damage.

Corker said the concern extends beyond the safety of individual American tourists who might be tempted to visit North Korea.

“We’ve got three Americans [detained] there now. It ends up affecting our own national security,” the chairman said. “We’ve seen it happen in Iran and other places. It ends up affecting negotiations, creates leverage [for an adversary]. Having a few Americans in prison someplace ends up having collateral effects on other things that matter greatly to the whole of American citizenry.”

The House Foreign Affairs Committee is expected to take up the North Korea Travel Control Act in a matter of days or weeks. The bill bars tourist travel and would require a special permit for other travel purposes to North Korea. A Senate version is said to be on a similar timetable.

Arguments for, against

In both chambers, restricting travel to North Korea has bipartisan support.

“It’s problematic that Americans travel there,” said Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Warmbier’s home state. “Now we’ve got to get the three Americans out and Americans shouldn’t be traveling there.”

Backing is not universal, however, with some lawmakers bristling at the idea of telling their constituents where they may travel.

“I’m not a fan of travel bans, with Cuba or anywhere,” said Arizona Republican Senator Jeff Flake.

Regardless of what Congress does, Democratic Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia offered some advice for Americans making travel plans.

“I don’t think any American should go to North Korea, whether we bar it or not. It is incredibly foolish to do it,” Kaine said.

Senators spoke after the Foreign Relations Committee received a classified briefing by the State Department’s top North Korea policy specialist. Corker declined to discuss the specifics of the briefing, but said he is less optimistic that a negotiated agreement on Pyongyang’s nuclear program can be reached.

“China is not doing what they said they would do [to pressure Pyongyang],” the chairman said. “Our interests and their interests just don’t align on this.”

VOA’s Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
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Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told a congressional panel Wednesday that the United States is now taking a more assertive role at the world body to hold North Korea, Syria, Venezuela and other authoritative regimes accountable.

“Our friends and our rivals know that America has once again found its voice at the United Nations,” Haley told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “The international community is now very clear about what the U.S. is for and what the U.S. is against.”

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who has served in the U.N. post for five months, said she successfully pushed the U.N. Security Council to adopt additional measures against North Korea’s continued nuclear weapons development and missile tests, while drawing “a red line” against Syria’s use of chemical weapons that led President Donald Trump to launch a missile attack against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

“The more pressure we put on North Korea, the better,” Haley said. “You are dealing with a paranoid leader [Kim Jong Un] who thinks we are trying to assassinate him. Who thinks we are trying to do regime change. Who keeps his public in the dark, only hearing what he wants them to hear. And what we need to remember is that he is building a nuclear program.” 

On Syria, she said, “I think that by the president calling out Assad, I think by us continuing to remind Iran and Russia that while they choose to back Assad, that this was something we were not going to put up with.”

She said, “The U.S. mission now refuses to tolerate one of the U.N.’s most disreputable and dangerous habits: obsessive bashing of Israel.” She said the U.S. had “steered the Security Council’s monthly debate on the Middle East away from unfairly targeting Israel, and toward the true threats in the region, such as Iran and Hamas.”

Haley said she has “made the case that human rights violations and conflict are directly connected. History has played out that when governments don’t respect the rights and voices of the people, conflict will soon follow.”

Reaction from Democrats

The top Democrat on the panel, Congressman Eliot Engel of New York, praised Haley’s tenure, saying she had approached the job “with a zest and verve that is very refreshing.” But he criticized a call by Trump to cut U.S. funding of the United Nations operations.

“My job was to go in and see if I could find value in the U.N.,” Haley said about the prospective cut in U.S. funding. “That was the directive all of you gave me, that was the directive the president gave me. There are a lot of places that the U.N. is very effective. There’s a lot of fat around the edges, and some abuses that happen at the U.N., but I do think it is very important that we make the most of it.”

Another Democrat, New York’s Gregory Meeks, told Haley that it was “absolutely shocking to me” that Haley said she had not talked with Trump about Russian meddling in last year’s election, a key focus on the Washington political scene at the moment.

Haley responded that she has told Trump that she accepts the U.S. intelligence community’s finding that Russia interfered in the election. But she said the issue had not once come up in her dealings with the world’s diplomats at the U.N.
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Samsung is investing $380 million in South Carolina to manufacture home appliances, creating an estimated 950 jobs over the next three years.

State and company officials said Wednesday that Samsung is locating in the former Caterpillar plant in Newberry. Production is expected to start early next year.

The company says “premium home appliances” made in Newberry will include washing machines.

An event was to be held later Wednesday to celebrate the announcement.

Samsung Electronics America CEO Tim Baxter says the investment represents the South Korean company’s commitment to expanding its U.S. operations.

Samsung already operates a call center in Greenville County employing 800 people.

Gov. Henry McMaster says Samsung’s decision will “change the very fabric of the Newberry community.”

Rural Newberry County is home to fewer than 40,000 people.

 
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The International Monetary Fund has cut its outlook for U.S. economic growth amid uncertainties about President Donald Trump’s economic policies.

The IMF’s updated forecast says the world’s largest economy will expand at a 2.1 percent annual rate this year.  That is better than last year, but less than the IMF previously predicted and less than the three percent growth rate promised by Trump during his campaign for president.

The IMF said its previous outlook for improved growth was based on Trump’s promises to slash taxes and regulation and boost spending on infrastructure to help economic expansion.  But the global lender’s experts now say they were able to learn too few details of these policies in discussions with U.S. officials.

An IMF assessment says the American economy is struggling to adapt to low productivity growth, technological changes that are reshaping the labor market, and an aging population.  These economic changes mean that half of U.S. households have lower incomes now than they did in 2000, and the economy is not doing enough to spread income growth. 

The global lender also says U.S. job growth is strong and the overall economy is now 12 percent larger than it was before the recession. 
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