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People wait in line at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in June, 2022 in New York.  Credit: AP/Julia Nikhinson

Marie Georges has sisters living in Haiti who she had hoped to reunite with on Long Island one day. 

But the travel ban issued by the Trump administration — which took effect Monday and names her home country and 11 others — means those hopes were dashed, for now.

Georges, 42, a U.S. citizen who came to the country as an 8-year-old child, said her two younger sisters are the last of her immediate family still living in Haiti. In 2018, her mother petitioned for them to come to the United States but only one sister has a visa to visit while the other does not, she said.

The ban, which is subject to revision according to the Trump administration, generally applies to those without a visa, including people in the process of getting one. Those with a valid visa already in the United States are exempt. But starting Monday, visa applications from those countries will be rejected unless they qualify for an exemption.

      WHAT NEWSDAY FOUND

  • Citizens from 12 countries are now barred from visiting the United States, and there are travel restrictions for people from seven other countries.
  • The White House says the ban is intended to "protect the nation from foreign terrorist and other national security and public safety threats from entry into the United States."
  • Local immigration experts and advocates called the ban racist for mainly targeting countries in Africa and the Middle East.

"It’s sad," said Georges, an event planner from Hicksville. The travel ban applies to Haiti, Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. There are also restrictions for those without valid visas from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

"It is upsetting to me, whatever country they go after," said Georges. "It’s upsetting because he was supposed to target the bad apples, but he's grabbing everybody."

President Donald Trump issued the June 4 proclamation following a Jan. 20 executive order to "protect the nation from foreign terrorist and other national security and public safety threats from entry into the United States," according to a release issued by the White House.

The release says the 12 countries are "deficient with regards to screening and vetting" and are being targeted to protect national security. People from some of those countries overstay their visas, while some countries do not accept individuals who are deported from the U.S., and have "significant terrorist presence or state-sponsored terrorism," according to the release.

The ban took effect as protests erupted this weekend in Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration.The escalation of deportation efforts also spurred a demonstration in Westbury on Long Island Sunday.

Some local legal scholars and immigration advocates call the ban racist because it mainly bans those from countries in Africa and the Middle East for reasons they said remain unclear.

"This travel ban is a national shame and its pretext appears, to me, to be rooted in racism," said Alexander Holtzman, director of the Deportation Defense Clinic at the Maurice A. Deane School of Law at Hofstra University.

Compared to Trump’s prior ban against seven predominantly Muslim countries during his first term, this policy carves out more exceptions, legal experts said. But it is still sowing fear and confusion in immigrant communities.

"The administration learned some litigation lessons from the Muslim ban, and has tried to buttress itself," Holtzman said, adding that "for the United States to now turn its back on individuals from Afghanistan, for instance, is tragic."

Lawyers and advocates said the ban will hurt the region economically in terms of tourism, local business and foreign investment. They said some foreigners will take their skills and money elsewhere.

Georges said the U.S. isn't the only option for her sisters. "As Haitian citizens, they have the right to go to other countries, like France," Georges said. " Everyone thinks this is the greatest, but there are so many other places that are beautiful," she added. 

Camille Mackler, CEO of Albany-based Immigrant ARC, an advocacy group, said Long Island has many industries, including agriculture and construction, that could feel the impact from the ban.

"You have a lot of universities that rely on foreign enrollment. You have a huge, especially in the summer, a huge hospitality industry that relies on an immigrant labor force," Mackler said.

But the biggest impact, advocates said, will be on family reunification.

Melanie Creps, executive director of the Central American Refugee Center in Hempstead, said this will eliminate ways for people to "visit loved ones," and to seek safety from violence and instability in their homeland.

"Instead of creating better, safer, faster pathways for people to enter the U.S. legally, the administration is removing pathways altogether — shutting people out entirely based on where they come from, how much money they have, and the color of their skin," Creps said in an emailed statement.

With AP

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