CBP Should Grant Parole to Fleeing Ukrainians Using ESTA

David J. BierMany European countriesare already accepting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing the country. But so far, the Biden administration has not made it any easier for them to travel to the United States. Even if President Biden decides he should provide an alternative to their European displacement, the details will matter. As the world sawfor Afghans fleeing the Taliban to the United States, an overly bureaucratic process can doom even the most well ‐​intended immigration efforts.Anyone boarding a U.S.-bound plane must have authorization to travel —a restriction mainly enforced by the airlines underthe threat of fines. The easiest way to obtain travel authorization is through Customs and Border Protection ’s (CBP) Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). ESTA is one of the few online immigration processes. It’s almost completely automated, so it takes the basic information provided, queries databases, and issues an approval within just72 hours ata cost of just $14.Virtually any other process simply won ’t work. They will take too long or admit so few people, rendering them irrelevant.The problem is that CBPreserves ESTA only for nationals of Visa Waiver Program (VWP) countries, and Ukraine is not on that list and cannot be added because the statute authorizing the VWPrequires each participating nationality to have a tourist (B) visa denial rate of less than 3 percent. Ukraine ’smost recent rate was 43 p...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs