WASHINGTON: The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has issued a policy guidance for those already in the US under which members of any Communist party from a foreign state will be ineligible to immigrate to the United States.
The USCIS has said it was issuing policy guidance in the USCIS Policy Manual to address inadmissibility based on membership in or affiliation with the Communist or any other totalitarian party, international media reports have said.
This covers Communist Party from “any foreign state, or of any political or geographical subdivision of any foreign state.”
Meanwhile, the United States Citizens and Immigration Services’ (USCIS) has recently issued administrative guidance to USCIS officers on how to apply this law in the context of adjustment of status applications for people already within the United States.
However, the recent USCIS announcement does not reflect a change in the law. The Act provides for many exceptions and waivers.
The United States Embassy in Kathmandu, meanwhile, said it respects Nepal’s multiparty democracy and will continue to work with the country’s elected government to advance bilateral ties.
The inadmissibility ground for membership in or affiliation with the Communist or any other totalitarian party is part of a broader set of laws passed by Congress to address threats to the safety and security of the United States, according to the USCIS.
It should be noted that in 1952, the United States Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) which barred immigrants from entering the United States on the basis of membership in, or affiliation with a Communist or totalitarian party.
“In general, unless otherwise exempt, any immigrant who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party (or subdivision or affiliate), domestic or foreign, is inadmissible to the United States,” the USCIS added.
The guidance includes an exemption for involuntary membership, such as when someone joins the Party for “employment, food rations, or other essentials of living.”
According to the USCIS, an alien who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party is inadmissible under INA 212(a)(3)(D), unless an exception applies.
Under INA 212(a)(3)(D), an officer must first determine whether the organization in question meets the definition of Communist or any other totalitarian party, according to the USCIS.
Communist or Any Other Totalitarian Party
An alien who is or has been a member of or affiliated with the Communist or any other totalitarian party is inadmissible under INA 212(a)(3)(D), unless an exception applies.
Under INA 212(a)(3)(D), an officer must first determine whether the organization in question meets the definition of Communist or any other totalitarian party.
The regulations define the Communist Party as:
- The Communist Party of the United States;
- The Communist Political Association;
- The Communist Party of any state of the United States, of any foreign state, or of any political or geographical subdivision of any foreign state;
- Any section, subsidiary, branch, affiliate, or subdivision of any such association or party;
- The direct predecessors or successors of any such association or party, regardless of what name such group or organization may have used, may now bear, or may hereafter adopt; and
- Any communist-action or communist-front organization that was required to register under former Section 786 of Title 50 of the U.S. Code, provided that the applicant knew or had reason to believe, while he or she was a member, that such organization was a communist-front organization.
“Any other totalitarian party” is defined as “an organization which advocates the establishment in the United States of a totalitarian dictatorship or totalitarianism.”
“Totalitarian dictatorship” or “totalitarianism” refer to systems of government not representative in fact, characterized by:
- The existence of a single political party, organized on a dictatorial basis, with so close an identity between such party and its policies and the governmental policies of the country in which it exists, that the party and the government constitute an indistinguishable unit; and
- The forcible suppression of opposition to such party.
After determining that the group in question meets the definition of the Communist or any other totalitarian party, the officer must determine if the alien is or has been a member of or affiliated with that group. If the group does not meet the definition, then the alien is not inadmissible under this ground.
Chapter 3 – Immigrant Membership in Totalitarian Party
Link: https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-f-chapter-3?fbclid=IwAR1vF-zM8Pl6m8ro8lRGECGnDxP0_ZupkKKT302Ons5uduetcRjIYbg-_wY
(USCIS)
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