对于签证和绿卡持有者，移民律师建议：现在不要出国旅行
【中美创新时报2025 年 3 月 29 日编译讯】（记者温友平编译）有报道称签证持有者被拒绝再次进入美国，绿卡持有者被拘留，移民律师和顾问建议，合法居住在美国的移民不应进行国际旅行。“这对移民的影响是巨大的，”一位移民律师说。“这一点我怎么强调都不为过。这是我 25 年从业生涯中从未见过的。”《波士顿环球报》记者奥马尔·穆罕默德和朱利亚·麦克唐纳·涅托·德尔·里奥对此作了下述报道。
有报道称签证持有者被拒绝再次进入美国，绿卡持有者被拘留，移民律师和顾问建议，合法居住在美国的移民不应进行国际旅行，即使是探亲也不要，因为穆斯林斋月将于本周末结束。
“他们可能想在开斋节假期旅行，但我们告诉他们……我们建议不要这样做，”美国伊斯兰关系委员会马萨诸塞州分会执行董事塔希拉·阿马图尔-瓦杜德 (Tahirah Amatul-Wadud) 表示。“我们担心他们离开后的安全问题以及他们能否返回。”
阿诺尔多·贝尼特斯 (Arnoldo Benitez) 是一位在马萨诸塞州执业的移民律师，他在马萨诸塞州和罗德岛设有办公室。他表示，客户对有关拉莎·阿拉维 (Rasha Alawieh) 博士的新闻报道感到震惊。拉莎·阿拉维是罗德岛的一名医生，持有有效的 H-1b 签证，在被拒绝再次进入美国后被驱逐回国黎巴嫩；还有法比安·施密特 (Fabian Schmidt)，一位出生于德国、住在新罕布什尔州的男子，他拥有绿卡，但在洛根机场被拘留，目前仍被关押在罗德岛的怀亚特拘留所。
近期，塔夫茨大学 (Tufts University) 博士生鲁米莎·奥兹图尔克 (Rümeysa Öztürk)和哥伦比亚大学 (Columbia University) 学生马哈茂德·哈利勒 (Mahmoud Khalil)被逮捕和拘留，过程被监控录像拍下，后者因参与校园亲巴勒斯坦抗议活动而面临被驱逐出境的危险。移民和维权人士对此也感到震惊。
“我已经执业八年了，在特朗普第一任政府期间，这甚至不是一个真正的问题，”贝尼特斯说。“他们害怕自己不会被允许回来。”
波士顿移民律师、萨福克大学法学院商业移民法兼职教授马修·马奥纳 (Matthew Maiona) 表示，他也看到来自企业客户的咨询数量有所增加。
他说，公司已将面对面的聚会改为远程 Zoom 会议，而长期未安排出行的客户也取消了出国计划。
“人们对未知的事情非常担忧，”马约纳说。“无论是公司还是员工，都对旅行非常担忧。”
他补充道：“我们向这些客户提供了建议和劝告，除非他们绝对需要去做某件事，否则他们不应该这样做。”
代表塔夫茨大学研究生 Öztürk 的北伊斯顿移民律师马赫萨·汗巴拜 (Mahsa Khanbabai) 表示，她告诉客户，特朗普政府处理移民问题的方式旨在“造成大规模的混乱和不确定性”。
“通常，政府对持签证和绿卡入境的个人可以采取的措施有一定的限制。但这些限制基本上已经被打破了，”Khanbabai 说。
“这对移民的影响是巨大的，”她补充道。“这一点我怎么强调都不为过。这是我 25 年从业生涯中从未见过的。”
奥马尔·巴是普罗维登斯难民梦想中心的创始人之一，他于 2022 年竞选罗德岛州国会议员。他告诉《波士顿环球报》，尽管他已是美国公民十多年，但在今年 1 月底结束国际旅行返回美国时，他仍面临美国海关和边境官员的额外审查。
巴赫曾是一名难民，在成为美国公民之前拥有绿卡。他告诉特工，自己一直在冈比亚探望家人，那里是他长大的地方，之后他又面临更多询问。
“他们不停地问同样的问题，”他说。“他们问我做什么工作。我说是难民安置。……也许这引发了更多的问题。”
巴赫说，他知道有些绿卡持有者选择不旅行。
“我支持他们这样做，因为他们不知道是否会被允许返回该国，”他说。“我认为不值得冒这个险。”
帕梅拉是一名合法的美国永久居民，她与一名美国公民结婚，因为害怕遭到报复。她说，一年前，当她试图续签绿卡时，她的申请最初被拒绝，原因是续签前出现了一个错误。这一失误足以让她决定不去国外旅行，以防移民官员认为这一事件是危险信号。她甚至对乘坐国内航班都感到紧张。
“我的律师建议我不要因为这个错误问题而旅行。它还会再次出现，”她说。
她说她计划申请公民身份，这样她就能获得随之而来的保护。
“我只有我的丈夫。如果我丈夫出了什么事，我该怎么办？”她说。“这是我唯一的[安全]，因为我看不出这个政府尊重任何人。”
玛丽亚也要求只透露她的名字，她表示过去几周看新闻让人“紧张不安”。
她于 2018 年首次来到美国。她和丈夫于 2023 年申请绿卡，最近她必须续签签证。她原本打算前往美国宣传她多年来一直在制作的一部纪录片，但她的移民律师建议人们暂停旅行计划。
“我的生活在这里。我的工作在这里。我的一切在这里，”她说。如果旅行后不被允许返回美国，风险太大了。“所以我不能让这种事情发生。”
她脑子里还有其他担忧。“你希望你的家人不会出事，你不得不飞回来处理紧急情况，”她说。“如果我能让父母平安无事地来这里，我宁愿这样做。”
法律专家表示，特朗普政府新旅行禁令针对的国家的移民在旅行时可能需要特别小心。该禁令列出了 11 个国家的“红色”名单，这些国家的公民将被禁止进入美国：阿富汗、不丹、古巴、伊朗、利比亚、朝鲜、索马里、苏丹、叙利亚、委内瑞拉和也门。“橙色”名单上的其他 10 个国家——白俄罗斯、厄立特里亚、海地、老挝、缅甸、巴基斯坦、俄罗斯、塞拉利昂、南苏丹和土库曼斯坦——将面临更严格的签证要求，包括强制性的面对面面试。
机器学习工程师 Raghu Mulukutla 住在弗雷明翰，持有 H-1b 签证。
“显然我担心特朗普的政策，但他没有针对 H-1b 持有者提出任何具体规定，”他说。
但他说，他担心特朗普政府可能会试图撤销 H4 EAD 签证，这是奥巴马政府制定的一项计划，允许 H-1b 签证持有者的配偶寻求就业。这将影响他的妻子。
“她觉得离开美国不安全，因为她来自中国，”他说。“在特朗普政府执政之前，这对她来说就是一个问题。”
2022 年访问中国时，她被问询了三个小时。这段经历让她泪流满面。
“从那之后，我们就觉得，‘哦是的，我们再也不会离开这个国家了，’”他说。
《波士顿环球报》的 Hiawatha Bray 对本报告做出了贡献。
题图：两人提着行李箱走过东波士顿洛根国际机场的走道。Andrew Burke-Stevenson 为《波士顿环球报》拍摄
附原英文报道：
For visa and green card holders, immigration lawyers offer advice: Don’t travel outside of the US right now
‘The impact on immigrants is dramatic,’ one immigration lawyer said. ‘I can’t overstate that. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in my 25 years of practice.’
By Omar Mohammed and Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio Globe Staff,Updated March 28, 2025, 5:02 p.m.
Two people carry suitcases through a walkway at Logan International Airport in East Boston.Andrew Burke-Stevenson for The Boston Globe
PROVIDENCE — Amid reports of visa holders being denied reentry to the United States and green card holders being detained, immigration lawyers and advisers are suggesting that immigrants who are in the US legally should not travel internationally, not even to visit family as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan ends this weekend.
“They might want to travel for the Eid al-Fitr holiday and we are telling them … we advise against it,” said Tahirah Amatul-Wadud, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “We’re concerned about their safety if they go and their ability to return.”
Arnoldo Benitez, an immigration lawyer licensed in Massachusetts who has offices in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, said clients have been alarmed by news reports about Dr. Rasha Alawieh, a Rhode Island-based doctor with a valid H-1b visa who was deported to her native Lebanon after being refused reentry into the US, and Fabian Schmidt, a German-born man living in New Hampshire who had a green card but was detained at Logan Airport and is still being held at the Wyatt Detention facility in Rhode Island.
Immigrants and advocates have also been shaken by the recent seizure and detention of Rümeysa Öztürk, a PhD candidate at Tufts University whose apprehension by six plainsclothed agents was caught on a surveillance video, and Mahmoud Khalil, a Columbia University student facing deportation for his role in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
Tufts graduate student detained by immigration authorities
“I’ve been practicing for eight years now and it wasn’t even a real question during the first Trump administration,” Benitez said. “They’re scared that they’re not going to be let back in.”
Matthew Maiona, an immigration attorney based in Boston and an adjunct professor who teaches business immigration law at Suffolk University Law School, said he’s seen an uptick in inquiries from corporate clients as well.
Companies have been changing in-person reunions to remote Zoom meetings, he said, and clients who have had travel pending for a long time have canceled their plans to leave the country.
“There’s a huge concern about the unknown,” Maiona said. “On both sides, from the companies and from the employees themselves, there’s been a lot of concern about traveling.”
“We’ve provided advice and counsel to those clients that really, unless they absolutely have to go to something, they shouldn’t do so,” he added.
Mahsa Khanbabai, an immigration attorney in North Easton who is representing Öztürk, the Tufts University graduate student, said that she tells clients that the way the Trump administration is approaching immigration is meant to “cause mass confusion and uncertainty.”
“Normally, there are guardrails related to what the government can do to individuals who are here on visas and on green cards. But those guardrails have basically just been shattered,” Khanbabai said.
“The impact on immigrants is dramatic,” she added. “I can’t overstate that. And it’s like nothing I’ve ever seen in my 25 years of practice.”
Omar Bah, a founder of the Refugee Dream Center in Providence who ran for Congress in Rhode Island in 2022, told the Globe that he faced extra scrutiny from US customs and border officials when he returned to the US from an international trip in late January, even though he has been a US citizen for more than a decade.
A former refugee who had a green card before becoming a US citizen, Bah said he faced additional questions after he told agents that he had been visiting family in Gambia, where he grew up.
“They kept going on and on, asking the same questions over and over,” he said. “They asked me what work I do. I said refugee resettlement. … Maybe that prompted more questioning.”
Bah said he knew of green card holders who are choosing not to travel.
“I support them in that, because they don’t know whether they will be allowed to come back to the country,” he said. “I don’t think it’s worth risking it.”
Related: Detentions of European tourists at US borders spark fears of traveling to America
Pamela, who asked that only her first name be used for fear of retaliation, is a legal permanent resident of the US who is married to an American citizen. When trying to renew her green card a year ago, she said, her application was initially rejected because of an error before the renewal was granted. The mix-up was enough to make her decide not to travel internationally, in case the incident is seen as a red flag by immigration officials. She is even nervous about taking domestic flights.
“My lawyer advised me not to travel because of this issue with the error. It will come up again,” she said.
She said she plans on applying for citizenship so she can get the protections that come with it.
“I just have my husband. If something happens to my husband, what is happening with me?,” she said. “That’s my only [security] because I don’t see that this administration respects anyone.”
Maria, who also asked that only her first name be used, said that watching the news the past few weeks has been “nerve racking.”
She first came to the US in 2018. She and her husband applied for green cards in 2023, and she recently had to renew her visa. She was supposed to travel to promote a documentary she has been working on for years, but her immigration attorney recommended that people suspend their travel plans.
“I have my life here. I have my work here. I have everything here,” she said. It’s too great a risk to travel and not be allowed back into the US. “So I cannot let that happen.”
There are other worries swirling around in her head as well. “You hope that nothing happens to your family and that you have to fly back for an emergency,” she said. “If I can have my parents come here with no issues, I’d rather do that.”
Immigrants from countries targeted by the Trump administration’s new travel ban may need to be especially careful as they travel, legal experts said. The ban has a “red” list of 11 countries whose citizens would be barred from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. People from 10 other countries on an “orange” list — Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan — would face tougher visa requirements, including mandatory in-person interviews.
Raghu Mulukutla, a machine learning engineer, lives in Framingham and holds an H-1b visa.
“Obviously I’m worried about Trump’s policies, but he didn’t have anything specific on H-1b holders,” he said.
But, he said, he is worried that the Trump administration could try to revoke H4 EAD visas, a program created under the Obama administration that allows spouses of H-1b visa holders to seek employment. That would affect his wife.
“She doesn’t feel safe leaving the country because she’s from China,” he said. “This was a problem for her even before the Trump administration.”
On a 2022 visit to China she was questioned for three hours. The experience reduced her to tears.
“After that, we were, like, ‘Oh yeah, we are never leaving the country,‘” he said.
Hiawatha Bray of the Globe staff contributed to this report.
