The State Department just added 12 more countries to its newish and very racist visa bond program, where people from countries Donald Trump doesn’t like have to pay huge amounts of money to come here, even for business or tourism.
That’s a $15,000 bond, to be precise. Travelers get the money back if they don’t overstay their visa, but that means they’re out that money for their entire trip.
A Customs and Border Protection officer checks the passport of a non-resident visitor to the United States inside immigration control at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
These 12 countries join the 38 countries that were already targeted, most of which are in Africa. And the bond requirement goes into effect in just two weeks.
The 12 new countries are Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Grenada, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Seychelles, and Tunisia.
Already on this racist list: Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Bangladesh, Benin, Bhutan, Botswana, Burundi, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Cuba, Djibouti, Dominica, Fiji, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kyrgyzstan, Malawi, Mauritania, Namibia, Nepal, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Ostensibly, this bond requirement is necessary because people from these countries have high overstay rates on B1 business and B2 tourism visas, so a hefty bond ensures they leave on time. So, if anyone from those 50 countries is coming here for work or for a vacation or really any sort of short-term visit, they have to pay that bond.
To be fair, people from those 50 countries may not all have to pay the full $15,000, because the amount is arbitrarily determined by a consular officer based on their review of things like income, skills, and education. Then, the officer can set the bond at $5,000, $10,000, or $15,000 based on vibes.
In theory, people could get a bond from a bond company, where you pay only part of the amount, and the company issues the full bond. But those sorts of companies only issue bonds in very narrow circumstances, and it’s in no way clear whether there are bond companies aplenty in these countries willing and able to issue these fiscal guarantees.
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It was inevitable that the bond requirements would apply mostly to African and Central/Latin American countries, because most European countries and several Southeast Asian countries are on the Visa Waiver Program list. If you’re coming to the U.S. from one of those countries, you don’t need a visa at all if your visit is under 90 days. So, those folks pay no bonds, and their overstay rates aren’t met with the same fervor DHS applies to majority non-white countries.
The Trump administration has been building up to this for a while now. Back in August, officials announced a “pilot program” and began requiring a $5,000 bond for people coming from Malawi and Zambia. But it’s been hugely expanded since then.
Fun fact: People must pay the bond at the time of their interview, not when the visa is issued, and paying the bond doesn’t guarantee they will get a visa. That also means that if someone’s consular interview is well before their planned trip here, they are out thousands of dollars for months.
Additional fun fact: If someone is on a B1 or B2 visa and then tries to claim asylum or change their immigration status in any way, the government gets to keep the bond.
It’s absolutely absurd to do this a couple of months before the World Cup in June, where Côte d'Ivoire, Algeria, and Cabo Verde are all set to play matches in the United States. Fans who are coming here to support those countries now have to figure out how to pay this bond.
And then there’s Trump’s travel ban, which is also going to block World Cup visitors from coming to see their teams compete. That covers 20 countries on top of these 50 to which the bond requirement applies.
U.S. tourism is already cratering because people are afraid to come here thanks to Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown. That’s a huge economic hit for the country, which the administration apparently determined was not enough of a hit—so they decided to make it even harder for international visitors to get here.
This only adds to what is already obvious: The World Cup is going to be a fiasco and people are going to stay home, hurting the bottom line of all the host cities. And those folks who decide to take the risk and come here face the prospect of arbitrary detention by ICE, which is presumably possible even if they coughed up that giant bond.
If only we could move every U.S. World Cup match to Mexico.
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