Anger and condemnation broke out as families, lawyers and immigration advocates absorbed the explosion from the latest bombs delivered by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration said the travel ban was meant to keep Americans safe, but critics have robbed accusations of discrimination, brutality, racism and inhumanity. Meanwhile, the news also elicited confusion about what will happen after the ban occurred on Monday.
“This travel ban is a racist, biased, xenophobic, deep, non-American attack on human rights. It’s like persecution. We have escaped dictatorship, violence and hunger,” Adelisferro, executive director of the Venezuelan-American Caucus, told Adelisferro, NBC News from Miami.
“The administration clearly has something to immigrants, and especially something to us,” said Jose Antonio Corina, a former Venezuelan military li who fled to Miami in 2003 and led the exile organization Veppex. “We are being doubled. We are persecuted by the tyranny of Nicholas Maduro and persecuted by Donald Trump’s administration.”
The 38-year-old Haitian green card holder from Miami said it was so scary that he couldn’t allow her to use her name. She said most of her family lives there, including her sick sister and father. “They always have time to visit, but now I don’t know if they can,” she said.
There are several exceptions, including those with legal permanent residency, spouses and children of US citizens, and people who have been adopted.
“But if you’re a permanent resident spouse, forget about that,” said Doug Rand, former director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services during the Biden administration. It also affects other relatives, such as adult children, legal permanent residents siblings, winning diversity lottery tickets, or those sponsored by US employers and from listed countries.
In Havana, a queue of people outside the US embassy learned the news of travel bans and suspensions while waiting for a visa interview.
“I’ve been waiting nine years at this moment,” said the young woman lined up. She and others said the suspension means they cannot visit their families or escape the misery of Cuba.
“If we don’t grant a visa, Cubans will starve and starve given the circumstances,” said retired Cuban Ismael Geinza. “I think the scale is bad. I think it’s bad because the situation is tough and we have to survive.”
Trump’s declarations issued Wednesday night are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
In seven more countries, travel to the US was suspended, but not banned. They are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Shahzeen Karim, a lawyer for Hafey & Karim Law Firm, said she is in the field of immigration law, but she holds “a Republican view” on the topic and agrees that stricter immigration policies and more thorough screening are needed.
“I know the White House has presented why those countries explained why, but I can’t help but feel that I am a Muslim immigration lawyer and are so targeted,” Karim said. “Unfortunately, the country is a majority of Muslims.”
Challenging a ban could be a “difficult battle”
Immigration advocates said unlike Trump’s previous travel ban, they were caught off guard, and they hoped the president would enact similar policies in his second term. Trump’s 2017 ban immediately banned Muslims from entering the country, either stuck at the airport or unable to board a flight.
But like his previous ban, the impact of the current ban next week is felt by those trying to bring their families together, those who have been employed in the US, those who were planning to tour or visit, and those who were planning to study here or looking forward to cultural exchanges.
In his previous administration, it took three attempts for Trump to come up with a travel ban that the US Supreme Court would accept. The lower court resolved the first version, and the administration continued to modify it until June 2018 when the High Court accepted the third version. Immigration and civil rights groups opposed all three versions.
Raha Wala, vice president of strategy and partnerships at the National Center for Immigration Law, said challenges to the latest ban would be a “difficult battle” because the Supreme Court decision is a land law.
New York City immigration lawyer Edward Kuccia said blocking the latest ban could be tougher than in 2017.
“This time Trump has become smarter,” he said.
Also, Cuccia said implementation is not too sudden and the court could maintain the argument that single-out countries do not fully review citizen documents.
Still, the impact is huge for people who are affected and not a security threat, he said.
“What does this mean for family unity? There are so many countries here!” Kuccia said. “And there are people who are doing business dealings, people who want to invest here in the US, or people who just want to come just for a temporary work visa, student visa, or visit… it seems to be disappearing from the window.”
The Wala called justification for the ban – the luxury of the visa presents the threat of national security and the inability to fully screen travelers of those countries – “fig leaves.”
If there is a gap in the review, “it’s worth watching,” he said, but “all kinds of people continue with their visas, and because someone continues with their visas and commits a crime.
For Wala, the newly announced ban cannot be separated from the president’s previous policies or statements.
“The ban began saying that the president intends to complete and completely shut down Muslims in the country. He also said he wants to ban people from S-Har country and tolerate my French here,” Walla said.
In Miami, Corina is pleased that the ban is preventing Venezuela and its family from finding ways to “always see Maduro administration officials as “always” but they are in the minority and partial bans have a negative impact on the larger community, which is unfair. ”
NBC News ‘Carlos Catire and Roberto Leon contributed.
President Donald Trump signed a travel ban late Wednesday, banning citizens from 12 countries from travelling to the United States. Seven additional countries have received partial bans.
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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