Trump clamps down on US visas for Nigerians

[Swordsmyth]

Few things unite Nigeria’s middle classes like anxiety over international visa application processes—and none more so than for the United States.
Depending on social class and income, the visa can mean anything from facilitating a business trip or a summer holiday to being a chance to chase the American dream. But, as hundreds of thousands of Nigerians apply annually, rejection rates and a lack of clarity over what consular officers base their rejection on has resulted in a reality where the process has been mystified as a high-stakes game of chance.
The Trump administration’s policies clamping down on visa applications from Nigeria is stoking even more fear and triggering waves of apprehension-fueled rumors. Or as Trump himself would call it: fake news.
Just last month, the United States embassy in Nigeria was forced to deny a widespread rumor that it had placed a ban on issuing student visas to Nigerians. The rumor took off and seemed believable for many Nigerians especially given recent policies by the Trump administration.
After reportedly considering visa clampdown measures including issuing visas for shorter validity periods for countries whose nationals have high rates of overstaying visas (Nigerians were the highest ranked African country for US visa overstays in 2018), the US indefinitely suspended its interview waiver process for visa renewals for Nigerian applicants. The waiver process previously allowed holders of two-year visas, usually frequent travelers, to renew them by submitting their passports and supporting documents for review rather than going through in-person interviews for every application.

Regardless, the fear-fueled rumors and the administration’s policies are having an effect on potential travelers, says Ola Oni, an Abuja-based travel and visa consultant who’s worked in space for almost a decade. As the process becomes more stringent, Oni says anecdotal evidence from applicants who have been through the visa process recently suggests there are already higher levels of application denials. The net result is that more people, including some who have successfully obtained visas in the past, have become “jittery” about the prospect of interviews and, in some cases, prefer to change travel plans rather than risk a rejection. “The situation can be conceived as a reflection of the Trump administration’s policies,” he says. By itself, stopping the interview waiver process already “sends a message,” he adds.

More at: https://qz.com/africa/1668116/us-emb...ws-in-nigeria/

Is our very own Nigerian an overstay?

[Danke]

Is our very own Nigerian an overstay?

Who? Eduardo?

[Swordsmyth]

Who? Eduardo?

Che.

[Anti Globalist]

What does this mean for @juleswin?

[PAF]

I can't help but think that the only solution is to End Welfare/Incentives, while preserving the right to freely travel. Not to mention restrictionism adversely affecting a free market where people spend money on things like tourism, etc.

The thought of other countries taking in folks like the following does not sit well with me.

He applied for official membership of the Nazi Party on November 12, 1937, and was issued membership number 5,738,692.

He said that he had been so influenced by the early Nazi promise of release from the post–World War I economic effects, that his patriotic feelings had increased.

In 1940, he joined the SS and was given the rank of Untersturmführer in the Allgemeine SS and issued membership number 185,068.

In a 1952 memoir article he admitted that, at that time, he "fared relatively rather well under totalitarianism".





More here.

[juleswin]

What does this mean for @juleswin?

Nothing really, considering how I have been saying that I vote for a long while now, I hope you people realize that I have my paper. My dad on the other hand was deported in 2009 ish for some silly green card violation now needs to go to the embassy to renew his VISA every 2 yrs.

I was one of the lucky ones

[Zippyjuan]

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-46074719

Nigeria's army cites Trump to justify shooting Shia protesters




The Nigerian army has cited a video of US President Donald Trump, in which he says soldiers should respond with force to migrants throwing stones, to justify opening fire on a Shia group this week.

"When they throw rocks... consider it as a rifle," Mr Trump says in the clip.

Nigerian police have arrested 400 members of a Shia Muslim sect after days of deadly protests in the capital.

Amnesty International has criticised Nigeria's army for the killings, saying the Shia protesters were peaceful.

But a spokesman for the Nigerian army says their decision to fire live rounds at protesters in Abuja was justified because they were armed, telling the BBC "this is what [Mr] Trump was talking about".

The army's official Twitter account shared the video adding the caption "please watch and make your deductions".

The clip shows the US president saying, in reference to Central American migrants, "they want to throw rocks at our military, [then] our military fights back".

Nigeria Army spokesman Brig Gen John Agim says the army posted the video in reaction to the rights group's report accusing the army of using weapons against Shia protesters.

The army did not mention the fact that the US embassy in Abuja has urged Nigerian authorities to "take appropriate action to hold accountable those responsible for violations of Nigerian law".

The number of Shia Muslim protesters killed by Nigeria's army in the capital, Abuja, in clashes which began at the weekend, has not been independently verified.

The Nigerian army says six protesters have been killed, but the protest group itself says dozens died, and rights group Amnesty International says the true number is 45.

No visas but lots of weapons for Nigeria.

https://www.newsweek.com/trump-brags...ow-what-908774

During his press conference, he kept calling attack planes "helicopters".

TRUMP BRAGS ABOUT SELLING DEADLY ATTACK AIRCRAFT TO NIGERIA, BUT DIDN'T KNOW WHAT THE WEAPONS WERE CALLED

President Donald Trump bragged about selling new deadly weapons to Nigeria this week, but struggled to call the aircraft by the correct name.

When Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari visited the White House on Monday, Trump used the opportunity to boast about the administration's sale of $600 million of deadly military aircraft to Nigeria last year. But he insisted on calling the aircraft helicopters, instead of acknowledging what they actually are: attack aircraft.

"We also have a very big trade deal that we're working on for military equipment— helicopters and the like," Trump said during a meeting in the Oval Office. When a reporter asked about the aircraft sold to Nigeria last year, the president again called the military equipment helicopters during a press briefing in the Rose Garden.

In fact, the U.S. sold twelve A-29 Super Tucano light-attack aircraft to Nigeria to fight the Islamic militant group Boko Haram. The Obama administration had chosen not to sell the A-29 to Nigeria after the country bombed a refugee camp near the border with Cameroon in January 2017, killing more than 200 civilians who had fled from Boko Haram. But the Trump administration, which has touted itself as tough on terror, facilitated the sale in August last year.

More at link.

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/...he-middle-east

EXCLUSIVE: THE U.S. HAS MORE MILITARY OPERATIONS IN AFRICA THAN THE MIDDLE EAST

The deadly ambush in Niger last October that left four U.S. serviceman dead prompted months of hand-wringing inside the Pentagon. But that botched operation, which drew national attention to U.S. counterterror operations throughout Africa should not have shocked military leadership, the former commander of U.S. Special Operations forces in Africa told VICE News.

“These weren’t the first casualties, either. We had them in Somalia and Kenya,” said retired Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, who served as commander of Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) from April 2015 to June 2017, in an interview with VICE News. “We had them in Tunisia. We had them in Mali. We had them in Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. But those were kept as quiet as possible. Nobody talked about it.”

Indeed, two separate military efforts — named Juniper Shield and Obsidian Nomad — that were set to intersect but failed to on the night of the deadly ambush near Tongo Tongo in Niger were part of a pattern of expansion on the African continent that has made it the most active U.S. military theatre in the world. The United States has conducted more than 30 named operations and activities in Africa over the last three years, according to documents obtained by VICE News. While more troops are deployed to, and engaged in combat in, the Greater Middle East, the sheer number of named efforts in Africa actually surpasses that region.

More at link.

[Swordsmyth]

I can't help but think that the only solution is to End Welfare/Incentives, while preserving the right to freely travel. Not to mention restrictionism adversely affecting a free market where people spend money on things like tourism, etc.

The thought of other countries taking in folks like the following does not sit well with me.

You want all the NAZIs in the world to be able to come here along with all the communists, we know.