Riley Gaines, a former NCAA swimmer and activist for female athletes, is celebrating President Donald Trump striking down the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for legal immigrants.
“My family has been stonewalled by the Biden administration for 3 years now,” Gaines told Fox News Digital.
“Three years of being blackmailed: my husband’s health for a chance at a green card. Forty-eight hours into Trump’s administration, he has removed the unjust barriers that kept families like mine in limbo,” she continued. He’s cracking down on illegal immigration while making legal immigration more streamlined and attainable for skilled, hardworking, tax-paying people who love America like my husband. Promises made, promises kept.”
Gaines also shared that her family has spent about $15,000 on fees, applications, and lawyers and have had to restart the process several times.
“No one in any federal agency under President Biden could point us in the right direction,” Gaines added. “It took one viral tweet to fall on the right ears in the Trump administration for them to get this fixed essentially overnight.”
She also praised the policy change on X.
“Huge news,” Gaines wrote. “Following the below tweet, USCIS has rescinded their Covid vax mandate for legal immigrants. I can’t even tell you the thousands of people in the same situation who have reached out over the past few years. Promises made, promises kept. Thank you, @realDonaldTrump.”
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in an announcement effective Wednesday that it will no longer require the COVID-19 vaccination for legal immigrants, and that they will no longer deny citizenship to legal immigrants who do not give documentation that they received the COVID-19 vaccine.
On Oct. 14, 2021, the Biden administration made it mandatory that all applicants for citizenship receive the COVID-19 vaccination shots as a condition for citizenship.
In November, Gaines said that her husband, despite having moved from England to America six years ago, had not been able to get a green card because he did not want to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
“My husband moved to America from England for college 6 years ago,” Gaines said on X. “We got married over 2.5 years ago. He STILL doesn’t have a green card because he won’t get the vaccine. They don’t force illegal immigrants to get the jab, just the legal ones.”
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