Immigration lawyer Greg Siskind reports that US citizens who are dual citizens with one of the 7 countries from the ‘not a Muslim ban’ Executive Order are having Global Entry revoked.
The ironic thing, of course, is that the individuals who will have their US entry slowed (and if they received TSA PreCheck via Global Entry, presumably their airport security screening slowed) and that Global Entry is extreme vetting. You don’t just provide fingerprints and your full travel history, you receive a background check including criminal background check and an in-person interview.
What’s more, someone may have had the status for 5 years and done nothing harmful or dangerous in that time.
Copyright: prestonia / 123RF Stock Photo
To be fair, the government hasn’t explained that this is what they’re doing. There’s apparently a big uptick in these Global Entry revocations, and multiple examples of revocations of dual citizens who hold US citizenship and citizenship from one of the 7 banned countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
Plenty of snowflake readers who support the executive order have complained about reading contrary viewpoints, but this is fundamentally about travel. It’s not just about who can travel here, about what citizens are going through as they enter the country or proceed through airport security, but will also affect how others travel abroad and run into reciprocity restrictions that other nations might put into place. This is very much developing, and I believe important to keep track of.
(HT: @ananth_tk)
This is a travel blog.
Without free movement of people there is very little travel.
Free movement is OUR CORE VALUE.
If you oppose free movement you don’t belong in a travel community.
@David,
You post is exactly the reason why we need extreme vetting. All over you post, you have been accusing US of various hatred related issues. If you have such a negative opinion of US. Why come here and live here? Why don’t you go to a country that accepts bad mouthing about the very country that you live in.
@Bill, Stop name calling. You are wrong about almost everything you said. Holder of GC aka Green Card are not citizens. Learn the basics. One only becomes citizen after naturalization.GC’s legal permanent residents. Thy do not have rights to vote. They can live here as long as their GC is valid and work here.
I have relatives of other countries but that does not give an excuse that they should be allowed here without proper vetting process.
40 plus refugees who came during Bush and Obama administration are CONVICTED of terrorism and terrorist related activities. That’s shows why we need proper vetting process unlike what we had earlier.
To do that This Trump administration is asking refugees or people on other visa from those 7 countries to bare temporary inconvenience.
How can that be wrong??
@thanks
I’m sorry but there is nothing called “free movement”. You cannot go from one country to another without immigration. That’s the basic you need to learn as a traveler. And that immigration changes from time to time. I’m sure you might have noticed if you traveled across different countries.
I have never committed any crime nor am I’m a terrorist. Why should I go through security check and inconvenience myself? is it not because to ensure a safe travel for all of us. Similarly this temporary inconvenience is to make us all safe here in this very country.
@Daniel What’s a proper vetting process? Do you even know what the current vetting process is for refugees?
The worst terrorist attack in my lifetime was perpetrated by citizens from Saudi Arabia and The UAE yet they are not even part of this travel ban. Over the past 12 months multiple terrorist attacks have taken place on Turkish soil including the Istanbul airport. Turkey is loaded with extremists yet they are not included in this ban. If we’re going to use safety as the reason for a travel ban then we should be including all countries where terrorists have been known to exist. It’s interesting that the countries left off the list all have have major business interests of the Trump Organization. This is why it’s more important than ever that we understand the business dealings and conflicts of our White House and president through their tax returns. I don’t think this is unreasonable. It’s certainly no more unreasonable than banning green card holders who went through years of vetting to obtain their green cards.
@ Daniel
It might be helpful if you studied some facts. That is if you think that security decisions should be logical and evidence based rather than based on prejudice, fear-mongering, and misinformation (“alternative facts”).
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/01/trump-immigration-ban-terrorism/514361/
Incidentally, when you go through the Global Entry process you declare whether or not you have dual citizenship.
I made a special trip from Australia to US soil to be interviewed after the initial background checks. During the interview the officer cross checks your declared travel history, no doubt almost other more extensive checks. You are subjected to whatever security checks that the administration deems to be fit for purpose. Gary is right – you have already been extensively checked! Global Entry also endows TSA PreCheck in recognition that you have been assessed as low security risk.
I am a dual citizen having been born in the UK and migrated to Australia and hold USA Global Entry by virtue of my UK Passport. In over 25 years this has never put me in a position of compromise (except perhaps at an international sports fixture such as an England-Australia cricket match!). I am not going to relinquish my UK citizenship given family back in the UK (and the opportunity to work in EEC counties if I ever chose to pending Brexit).
Please consider that the more you cower in fear, support decisions which are logically delusional, and use the excuse of security to foster division and paranoia, the more the terrorists have achieved their very goal.
In your position I would have concerns about the love / hate attitude of tRump towards the intelligence agencies and the downgrading of the role of the military chiefs of staff on the NSC, amongst other issues. I would expect the government to move away from oil dependency and stop selling arms to volatile regions to distance from the various foreign policy disasters (which clearly isn’t going too happen with the coal / oil industries and the defence industries pulling the strings). But, hey, it’s your country not mine and if your current social-political milieu continues to descend into chaos all I need to do is to divert my mid-year vacation from the US to Europe!
The crazy thing about the travel ban is that all people from the “ban” countries have already been through “extreme vetting”. Almost all Iranians in the US loathe their government and just want to pursue a better life in the US. The blanket ban is a finger in the eye to the Obama and Bush administrations who carried out vetting already. What sort of vetting processes does the Trump administration think it can implement that haven’t been implemented already, especially since those whose job it is to screen visa applicants have not even been consulted about this? It is also a finger in the eye to all of these people who played by the rules and went through a lot of trouble to come to America to seek a better life. Revoking global entry for already vetted US citizens just like anybody else only because of original nationality and not because of probable cause also must violate the constitution’s equal protection clause. These are US citizens that are treated differently because of something that they have no control over – their place of birth.
They’re revoking from people BEYOND the 7 countries – i have 2 friends originally from Pakistan, both now US citizens who had it revoked in the last 2 weeks.
lol global entry should have never been given out to a dual national from a terrorist country to begin with. This is just a correction that should have been made a long time ago. They are still allowed to enter and leave the us, they just need to speak to a customs / immigration agent on the way back in. Instead of blaming the us maybe you should blame the offending countries for being third world hell holes that allow jihadi training camps to operate freely.