Cohen Forman Barone joins the American Immigration Lawyer’s Association (“AILA”) in condemning President Trump’s Executive Orders on immigration policy. Cory Forman, who heads the firm’s Global Immigration Department and serve’s as chairperson of AILA’s New York ICE Liaison Committee, agrees that the orders are contrary to American values. The most recent order, signed on January 27, 2017, is a thinly veiled effort to make good on the President’s campaign promise to ban all Muslims from coming to the United States.
Among other things, the order:
- Suspends the refugee program for 120 days and suspends the Syrian refugee program indefinitely
- Caps refugee resettlement numbers at 50,000 for FY 2017, a cut of more than 50%
- Suspends immigrant and nonimmigrant entry for people from predominantly Muslim countries for a minimum of 90 days while the government undertakes a review
- Requires in-person interviews for nonimmigrant visa applicants
- Establishes requirements for “extreme vetting”
As AILA members from around the country note, “these policies will do little to improve national security and will create enormous delays for people coming to the U.S. In New York and across the nation, these policies will put discrimination based on faith or national origin on the books. We cannot stand idly by and let this happen.”