The United States has paused all as well as appointments worldwide as it cracks down on immigration, the Financial Times reported.
This comes at a time when the US is cracking down on immigration in order to limit access to those who think can end up staying in the US and thus relying on state assistance, an official told the publication on Tuesday.
“A more prosperous America means ensuring that visa applicants are not likely to become a public charge, as defined under US law and regulation, and not likely to become dependent on US public benefits reserved for qualified Americans in need,” FT quoted the official as saying.
The official revealed that the initiative was launched in the early days of August so that “in-depth training” can be carried out regarding the same.
FT reported that those who had visa appointments scheduled were sent emails that the same had been cancelled and they would receive information about a new date and time later.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson of the state department revealed to Reuters that this global training programme has been launched across all embassies of the United States across the globe, and that visa appointments would be rescheduled in order to accommodate the same.
Apart from this, the State Department has not yet specified the details of what the new training programme would entail.
While the claim is to reduce the number of visa applicants who would end up relying on public benefits, this move is a part of Trump’s strategies to decrease overall immigration into the United States.
Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that it would be of those asylum seekers who had entered the country on tourism or business visas. This new move is likely to affect upto 200,000 people, and will become the largest mass revocation of visas by the US government in history.
The Trump administration also attempted to block altogether, but this decision was blocked on 21 August, Friday (local time), by a District Judge in Manhattan.
Judge Jeannette Vargas announced that the policy of the State Department was ‘patently unlawful’ and is not in sync with federal immigration laws.
“The Policy, which categorically prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas based upon the nationality of the applicant, represents a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme,” she wrote in her judgement, as per Reuters.
While Trump’s presidential campaign in 2024 promised to curb illegal immigration into the US, his government’s policies have also made legal immigration difficult with tighter screenings, increased fees, as well as restrictions that affect foreign workers in the US as well as other visa applicants.
