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Comment by graemep | Hacker News Reader

A lot of countries already do this. You cannot get visas to most developed countries if you are likely to become a "public charge". In general, its a lot easier to get a visa if you are from a rich and stable country (or are rich yourself), and if you look at where countries allow visa free travel to citizens of another country the countries on this list are unlikely to qualify!

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In that case, why not have some measurement of what makes a person likely to be a public charge that applies to every country, rather than a blanket ban on everyone from targeted countries?

There are lots of possible reasons. Some good, some bad.

A possible good reason might be that there is a higher level of fraud (e.g. faked financial statements), or a higher level of public charge in applications from some countries - especially if it is a pause while procedures are changed. On the other hand the true motive might be something else.

That said, I have no idea why its this particular list of countries. Why Thailand or Jamaica or Nepal?

H1B processing is hopelessly backed up for the 60-70 thousand visas we give out annually. We would have to massively cut immigration inflow, from the 1-3 million annually we have today, to make those granular determinations feasible.

I don't think individualized determination are even possible. Unless you take very few people from each country, they'll inevitably find each other and form communities. And the kinds of communities they form will be driven by their cultures. The question isn't "would this one Bangladeshi be a good immigrant." It is "when 100,000 Bangladeshis inevitably form a cultural enclave in some city, will that be better or worse than what was there before?"

They already literally review on a case by case basis regardless of country of origin. Providing evidence of financial support is a big part of visa and green card applications.

That is not the same as this. If you're a multi-PhD holder from Iran who's a world-famous scientist, you can get into e.g. the UK. This would forbid them, purely based on country of origin.

The article says it is a temporary pause. other sources seem to confirm this:

"Immigrant visa processing from these 75 countries will be paused while the State Department reassesses immigration processing procedures to prevent the entry of foreign nationals who would take welfare and public benefits,"

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-suspend-visa-processing-...

Oh, well that's reassuring

The U.S. already does this. Providing evidence of financial support is a big part of visa and green card applications. If this is a big problem, it's because the U.S. is approving applications without sufficiently reviewing that evidence (but more likely, it's a bogus excuse).

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