Right now in the USA it is Monday around lunchtime. The travel ban was announced on Friday afternoon, so really not very much time has elapsed since the ban was announced. The Department of Homeland Security had not been pre-warned by the Trump administration (which in itself shows how clueless the administration are), but they have struggled to react to the travel ban being torn between the orders from the president on one side and the law and common sense on the other. So – things are rapidly changing.

  • First, people in the air travelling to the USA found they were banned. A judge stepped in and gave those people some relief.
  • Then, people who already have their Green Cards were affected by the ban and by Sunday the Whitehouse conceded that point and said the ban does not affect existing Green Card holders.
  • Then KCC and a number of embassies announced that interviews were being cancelled for people from the effected countries.
  • Now the London US embassy has announced that dual nationals holding UK passports and one of the 7 affected countries could continue being issued visas and could travel to the USA. This was as a result of negotiations with the UK government. However, in practice, that relief might be hard to “enjoy”. KCC should in theory re-instate any interviews for DV cases of UK dual nationals. I would not be surprised to see there being difficulties in that. But still it shows there are cracks appearing in the executive order as more sensible people get involved.
  • Australian government has negotiated the same “exemption” as the UK, but for affected people holding Australian passports.

 

***UPDATE***

The acting Attorney General has instructed the Justice Department to stop defending the ban in courts. She has done that because she is not convinced the ban is legal. This is a big blo against Trump, and while Trump will move quickly to silence the acting A.G. it certainly shows the level of legal opinion that Trump has failed to understand.

***Update 2***  Sure enough Trump silenced the acting AG by firing her. When a government has no option but to fire people that have given their honest legal opinion (after 30 years experience in the DoJ), it shows the level of desperation  the administration has sunk to.

 

 

I will continue to post significant information as I get it, but please people need to use some common sense of their own and realize that I cannot predict what will happen in this fast moving scenario.