Transgender athletes attempting to travel to the United States for sports competitions will be subject to visa denials after the US State Department has ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to them.
Authorities in the US also plan to issue permanent visa bans against persons who are deemed to mispresent their birth sex on visa applications, VisaGuide.World reports.
On February 24, the State Department cable secured by the Guardian instructed visa officers to apply Immigration and Nationality Act section 212(a)(6)(C)(i) – the “permanent fraud bar” – against transgender applicants.
In cases where applicants are suspected of misrepresenting their purpose of travel or sex, you should consider whether this misrepresentation is material such that it supports an ineligibility finding.
New Changes Following Trump’s February 5 Order
On February 5, the President of the United States, Donald Trump issued an executive order banning transgender athletes from participating in competitions in women’s sports.
The recent decision to deny visas to trans athletes attempting to travel to the US competitions comes following the order issued earlier this month.
Trump directed Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, to deny visas to men “fraudulently attempting to enter the US while identifying themselves as women athletes”, in the Olympics of 2028 in Los Angeles.
Trump directed Rubio to tell the International Olympic Committee that the US will not stand and watch men beat and batter female athletes.
Sarah Mehta, senior policy counsel at the ACLU, said the administration is using the permanent fraud provision in a new way to target a specific identity group, according to the Guardian.
It’s normal to say that people accused of fraud or misrepresentation are often considered to be ineligible. It’s usually a case-by-case determination. But it is quite bizarre and novel in a terrible way to be saying it’s based on misrepresenting their sex or gender in order to come and participate in an event in the United States.
According to Mehta, the inadmissibility provision has been used to bar groups like criminals in the past “but to single out and label transgender persons this way as a disfavored group is really alarming”.
However, it is yet not known how many foreign trans athletes will attempt to participate in the Olympics of 2028.