Biden Reverses Visa Ban on Nigeria, Others

Barely 24hrs after Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th US President, he has hit the ground running with a couple of historic actions one of which is the reversal of Donald Trump policy that restricted the granting of immigrant visas to Nigerians.

Recall that, Trump had in Last year January expanded curbs on immigration to include six more countries, including Nigeria.

At the time, the US government said the policy was designed to tighten security for countries that don’t comply with the U.S. minimum security standards or cooperate to prevent illegal immigration.

But the Biden administration, which campaigned partly on a message of diversity, is seeking to re-open America to the world.

The reversal is part of a 10-day onslaught of executive actions intended to overturn key Trump policies without waiting for Congress, on topics ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to climate change and criminal justice, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday.

In part, the Bloomberg report reads: “The ban that Biden ended, blocked entry to most people from Iran, 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 has halted the US exit from the World Health Organization, stopped construction of Trump’s cherished wall on the Mexican border, and rescinded a ban on visitors from several Muslim-majority nations.

He has also committed the United States to rejoining the Paris climate accord, blocked an oil pipeline project, and froze Arctic drilling in a raft of executive orders signed hours after taking office Wednesday.