The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“CONCERNS OVER WAIVER PROCESS” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the House of Representatives section on pages H5042-H5043 on June 24, 2019.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
CONCERNS OVER WAIVER PROCESS
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Bera) for 5 minutes.
Mr. BERA. Mr. Speaker, this Wednesday, June 26, marks the 1-year anniversary of the Supreme Court upholding President Trump's travel ban which suspended the issuance of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas to applicants from five Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen; plus Venezuela and North Korea.
In upholding the travel ban, the court indicated that by including North Korea and Venezuela, the administration was not targeting only Muslim countries. In addition, the administration was creating a mechanism by which foreign nationals from those banned countries could be issued a waiver to enter the United States if: one, the applicant did not represent a security threat with their entry; or, two, if denying entry would cause undue hardship.
One year later, we can evaluate whether the Trump administration has honored the court ruling.
Mr. Speaker, from my experience with my constituents in Sacramento County, the resounding answer is ``no.'' In my district, a young girl named Omnia, who was born in Libya to an American mother and a Libyan father, was separated from her family for 2 years because of the travel ban.
Her mother, an American citizen, took Omnia, who was then 2 years old, to the immigrant visa interview at the Embassy in Tunis, where the interview was only minutes long with no questions. Instead, the consular officer said the Embassy had all of the documents and everything was in order, but they could not issue the visa for the 2-
year-old. The consular officer told the mother, who was 7 months pregnant at the time, to go back to the U.S. and have her baby, and then come back when the travel ban was over.
The consular office did not reference the undue hardship exception which was stipulated in the visa waiver process. I don't believe this 2-year-old was a security risk and separating a 2-year-old from their mother clearly causes undue hardship, so I am not sure what that process was.
There is also the disturbing case last year of a Yemeni mother who fought to obtain a visa waiver to travel to California to see her terminally ill son. It was only after widespread media coverage that she was finally granted a visa waiver to visit the United States to see her son just days before he passed away.
This story takes place over and over again in districts all across this country. Thus, I have serious concerns about the waiver process, how it is being implemented unevenly and with little guidance, and that waivers granted are not leading to the issuance of visas for cleared individuals.
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My concern is further heightened due to the cases of constituents in my district and across the country who are being negatively impacted by confusing and uneven processes.
Now, in my role as chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations for the House Foreign Affairs Committee, I am aiming to shed light on how the visa waiver process is being implemented. We have asked--and the State Department has not provided information to us that we have requested--about how to gain a waiver, what is the process, and what is the yes/no here.
I think I know why. It is because there isn't one, as countless examples and stories have shown.
We have got to continue to shine a spotlight on the millions of Americans whose lives have been thrown into chaos due to the President's reckless and ill thought-through process. I, as an American, am going to continue to fight on their behalf.
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