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The Effects of COVID-19 on International Travel and U.S. Immigration

The emergence of COVID-19 has changed the world in so many ways. One area in particular that has been affected by the pandemic is immigration and international travel. In the beginning phases of the pandemic, the Trump Administration took many steps to restrict international travel and immigration to the U.S. to curtail the spread of the virus. But now, as we are over two years into the pandemic, travel and immigration restrictions have been loosened by the Biden Administration. It seems that immigration and travel will continue to have fewer restrictions, but we cannot know for certain how the virus will evolve in the future and what the response to it will be.

On January 31, 2020, the United States declared COVID-19 a public health emergency.[1] On the same day, President Trump created the first COVID-related travel restriction in which he banned travel from China to the U.S.[2] On February 29, 2020, he banned travel from Iran.[3] The first sign that immigration and travel would restricted in a major way was on March 11, 2020, when President Trump issued a proclamation that put travel restrictions on two dozen European countries.[4]

President Trump went beyond limiting travel and took executive actions to halt the granting of visas. On April 22, 2020, President Trump issued a proclamation, which suspended the entry of immigrants to the U.S. for 60 days if they were not in the U.S. by April 23, 2020, and did not have a valid immigrant visa or any other official travel document by this date.[5] This proclamation did not affect petitioners for nonimmigrant visas;[6] however, language in this proclamation directed federal agencies to examine nonimmigrant visas.[7] So, in June, President Trump issued a proclamation that both extended the April proclamation to the end of 2020 and suspended the issuance of nonimmigrant employment visas until December 31, 2020;[8] President Trump subsequently extended both visa bans until March 31, 2021.[9] The proclamation affected the H1-B, H2-B, L-1, and J-1 visas.[10] The proclamation also banned dependents (spouses and children of the visa petitioners) from entering the U.S. as well.[11] These restrictions caused immigration to the US to drop by 92% in the second half of the 2020 fiscal year, which is the largest drop in immigration that the U.S. has seen to date.[12]

After President Biden was inaugurated, he began to loosen the restrictions that had been put on international travel and the granting of visas. On February 24, 2021, Biden issued a proclamation that revoked the ban on immigrant visas that the Trump Administration had put in place because the ban “Does not advance the interests of the United States. To the contrary, it harms the United States, including by preventing certain family members of United States citizens and lawful permanent residents from joining their families here.”[13] Biden did not, however, lift the freeze that Trump had put on the nonimmigrant visas; instead, he just let it expire on March 31, 2020.[14]

Biden has also taken steps to resume global travel to the U.S. On October 25, 2021, he issued a proclamation that rescinded all regional COVID-19 travel bans and instead imposed a vaccination requirement on all nonimmigrants traveling to the U.S.[15] However, the October 25, 2021 proclamation was not the end of COVID-related travel restrictions. Due to the emergence of the Omicron variant, Biden issued a proclamation on November 26, 2021, suspending travelers from South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, and Zimbabwe.[16] However, this restriction did not last as long as previous travel restrictions. On December 28, President Biden revoked the travel restrictions because health officials had made “substantial progress in understanding the Omicron variant.”[17] Biden also stated that his administration has made international travel to the U.S. even safer since the travel restrictions were issued.[18] These actions taken by the Biden Administration seem to suggest that we are moving past restrictions on travel and immigration as a means to prevent the spread of COVID-19. However, we cannot predict with absolute certainty how this virus will continue to evolve and how it will be dealt with in the future. 

Annemarie Heneghan is a staff member of Fordham International Law Journal Volume XLV.

This is a student blog post and in no way represents the views of the Fordham International Law Journal.

[1] See Melissa Cruz, How the COVID-19 Pandemic Has Affected Immigration: One Year Later, Immigration Impact (Mar. 11, 2021), https://immigrationimpact.com/2021/03/11/covid-affect-on-immigration-update-2021/#.YgCIaS-cafX.

[2] See id.

[3] See Latest Updates: Coronavirus and Immigration, Boundless (Dec. 27, 2021), https://www.boundless.com/blog/coronavirus-immigration/.

[4] See Cruz, supra note 1.

[5] See Roy J. Barquet, Summary of the April 22, 2020 Executive Order Temporarily Suspending Some Immigration into the U.S., Foley & Lardner, LLP (Apr. 23, 2020), https://www.foley.com/en/insights/publications/2020/04/summary-executive-order-suspending-immigration-us.

[6] See id.

[7] See Cruz, supra note 1.

[8] See id.

[9] See Vanessa Romo, Biden Reopens Gateway For Green Cards Reversing Trump COVID-19 Freeze, NPR (Feb. 24, 2021), https://www.npr.org/2021/02/24/971206197/biden-reopens-gateway-for-green-cards-work-visas-reversing-trump-covid-19-freeze.

[10] See Cruz, supra note 1.

[11] See id.

[12] See id.

[13] Proclamation No. 10014, 86 Fed. Reg. 11,847 (Feb. 24, 2021).

[14] See Romo, supra note 9.

[15] See Roxanne Levine, Presidential Proclamation Officially Rescinds Regional Travel Bans – COVID Vaccination Requirements Replace Bans to Allow for International Travel, JD Supra (Oct. 28, 2021), https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/presidential-proclamation-officially-9299726/.

[16] See Justin Tasolides, Biden revokes travel restrictions on South Africa, other countries, put in place due to omicron, Spectrum News NY1 (Dec. 28, 2021 1:39 PM), https://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/news/2021/12/28/biden-travel-ban-south-africa-omicron-covid.

[17] See id.

[18] See id.