The President of the United States America, Joe Biden, on his first day in office, has signed some executive orders thereby lifting the immigrant visa ban placed on Nigerians by former president Donald Trump. With Biden’s reversal of Trump’s order, Nigerians will now be able to apply for green cards.
The Biden-Harris administration also reversed the systemic ban placed on Islamic countries, the likes of Iran, Iraq, Somalia, to mention a few. The measure directs the State Department to resume visa processing for those countries and develop a plan to address people affected, such as those who were denied entry to the U.S.
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The past Trump administration placed an immigrant visa ban on Nigeria, citing that Nigeria has high rate of inconsequentiality and lack of a robust database. The American Ambassador to Nigeria, Mary-Beth Leonard, stated at the time that Nigeria must improve on its data intelligence to ease the investigation of its citizens wishing to migrate to the US, if it wants the ban lifted.
The Nigerian government subsequently set up a committee on Citizen Data Management and Harmonization, to address the complaints of the US which led to the recent push for all Nigerians to register with the National Identity Management Commission and obtain a National Identity Number.
The Bloomberg report reads in part, “The ban that Biden ended, blocked entry to most people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen, Somalia, and North Korea. It also restricted immigrant visas for people from Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, and Eritrea as well as for certain others from Venezuela and Tanzania”.
Biden-Harris administration, on Wednesday 2oth January 2021, began reversing Trump’s immigration policies, part of an aggressive push to roll back some of the most controversial actions of their predecessor and chart a new course for the nation.
The action also orders reviews of other “extreme vetting” practices used by the Trump administration, while directing the US to improve information-sharing with foreign governments to bolster screening of travelers.
Joe Biden was sworn-in as the 46th President of the United States of America on 20th January, 2020, taking over from President Donald Trump.
By; Authentic Mike
