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The United States is already turning away climate refugees who are attempting to enter the country under longstanding international agreements, in case you were wondering how far along we were.
And if you're hoping to get one of those visas (that the government is now requiring without warning) from the US embassy in the Bahamas, well...
"Responses to routine inquiries are currently suspended." bs.usembassy.gov/visas/
"Responses to routine inquiries are currently suspended." bs.usembassy.gov/visas/
The US has facilities at Nassau and Freeport airports to process Bahamians without visas, and has for years. Since the hurricane, that program has been expanded to cover ferries as well. The policy was revoked without warning tonight.
More than a hundred people with tickets to the US were removed from the ferry just before it launched tonight, on orders from US Border Patrol.
By throwing people off the boat as it departed, by the way the US government cost those who were denied travel the price of a ticket, AND sent the boat to the US half empty.
Hundreds of people at the ferry terminal earlier today were unable to buy tickets to the US. Those of them who had visas would have been able to travel if the US had announced the policy change in a timely way.
So the effect of the change—and, it's entirely possible, the intent—wasn't just to capriciously deny travel to people who had passports and tickets but no (previously unnecessary) visas, but to deny entry to the US to Bahamians WITH visas as well.
Update: CPB released a statement on the incident overnight. (At bottom of CNN story.) It's ... entirely opaque. It explains nothing. splinternews.com/report-bahama-…
And when reporter @BrianEntin arrived in Florida, CPB officials there gave him two different explanations for the removal of the people from the boat—neither one of which lines up with the CPB statement released earlier.
UPDATE: CBP announced yesterday that the US embassy in Nassau is open for emergency visas, although this information is not available on the embassy's visa webpage. cbp.gov/newsroom/natio… …
Still waiting on a clear statement from CBP about what happened on the ferry last night and why, and what the policy is going to be in similar situations going forward.
In the light of morning, it appears that there are now circumstances in which the US will allow Bahamians to travel by ferry to the US without visas, and circumstances in which they will not—but that there is no clear public guidance available as to which is which.
MORE: In a Newsweek interview, CBP spox says (1) the Bahamians would have been processed in Florida if they had stayed on the ferry, but (2) the ferry company was told the boat would have to divert to Nassau so the passengers could get visas there. Clear? newsweek.com/hurricane-dori…
CBP, in other words, says it’s the ferry company’s fault for not ignoring CBP’s instructions—if they’d brought the passengers to the US in defiance of CBP’s orders, everything would have worked out fine.
Also of note in the Newsweek story: US officials from both parties have been calling on the govt to waive the visa requirement for nearly a week now.
(If you’re keeping score, we’re now at five explanations of the incident from four CBP representatives in three separate communications, none of which match.)
