February 3, 2017

Tens of Thousands of Visas Have Been Revoked Because of Trump’s “Muslim Ban”

The exact number remains unclear, although it could be more than 100,000.

Protesters at John F. Kennedy Airport in New YorkCraig Ruttle/AP Photo

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Tens of thousands of visas belonging to foreigners from seven predominantly Muslim countries have been provisionally revoked following President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting travel by people from those countries to the United States. The exact number of revoked visas remains unclear. An attorney representing the US government said in a Virginia court on Friday that more than 100,000 visas had been revoked. But the State Department later disputed the numbers, claiming that fewer than 60,000 visas had been revoked.

A State Department memo released earlier this week revealed that the visa revocations were a result of Trump’s executive order, but it was only in court on Friday that the number of revoked visas was made public. “You could hear the gasps in the courtroom,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Justice Center, told the New York Times. The visa-holders were not notified of the revocations, the paper reported. The change strands thousands of people outside the United States and prevents thousands of others in the country from leaving and coming back.

The State Department memo notes that there are exemptions for some diplomatic visas, and waivers could be applied on a “case-by-case basis” at the determination of the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Because the visas were revoked “provisionally,” they could potentially be reinstated, a State Department official told the Huffington Post.

This story has been updated.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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