A French member of Parliament has urged American authorities to reverse a decision to deny him entry to the United States, after he said they rejected his request for a visa to meet with progressive lawmakers and intellectuals about life under the Trump presidency.
Pouria Amirshahi, a member of the Green party, said he had planned to travel to Washington D.C., New York and Boston this month. The trip was supposed to be the first taken by a member of La Digue, or The Dike, a group that he created a month ago with a handful of other leftist and centrist French lawmakers, to “counter the spread of neo-fascism” in liberal democracies.
At a news conference at the French National Assembly on Thursday morning, Mr. Amirshahi said he had told U.S. authorities that the purpose of his trip was to ask lawmakers, activists, professors and journalists to understand “what the new situation was in the country since Mr. Trump came to power.”
He was set to meet with progressive lawmakers, he said, including Senator Peter Welch, Democrat of Vermont, and Representative Maxine Dexter, Democrat of Oregon. But, he said, on Tuesday, he was told that his visa application had been rejected.
“The door was shut in a rather abrupt and unexpected manner,” Mr. Amirshahi said in a telephone interview. “This is a decision that we consider to be both hostile and unfriendly.”
A member of his team said later on Thursday that the embassy was “reconsidering the reasons for the refusal.”
A spokesperson for the U.S. embassy in Paris declined to comment and referred the matter to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency did not respond to a request for comment.
Increasing numbers of travelers to the United States have reported being denied entry and being subjected to tougher scrutiny, or “enhanced vetting.” The Trump administration says it is enforcing immigration laws and protecting Americans. Critics argue that officials are targeting foreigners who have criticized President Trump’s policies.
In March, the French government accused the United States of denying entry to a French scientist after the scientist expressed opposition to Mr. Trump. The Department for Homeland Security said it was because the academic had confidential information from a U.S. laboratory on their phone.
Mr. Amirshahi said he applied for a visa on May 19 after his request for an Electronic System for Travel Authorization form, which foreign travelers to the United States are required to obtain before visiting the United States, was denied. The American embassy in Paris asked for the reason for his trip and a referral letter from the French foreign ministry, which was supplied on June 4. Almost two weeks later, his application was denied.
Mr. Amirshahi said he hoped the administration would reverse its decision in the coming days. He had initially planned to travel to the United States on June 11.
“We are primarily concerned with promoting parliamentary diplomacy, and the right of lawmakers to travel abroad, in order to be better informed in their actions,” he said in the news conference. “We do not live in a vacuum today; interconnection is a reality.”
Mr. Amirshahi, who was born in Iran in 1972 and whose family fled to France in 1976, said he did not believe that his background was the cause of the refusal.
He became a French citizen in 1996, he said, and has publicly opposed the Iranian regime. “My relationship with this theocratic regime is quite tenuous, since I hate them,” he said. “I have fought them and will continue to fight them.”
Ségolène Le Stradic is a reporter and researcher covering France.
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