The Foreign Service Journal, November 2020

20 NOVEMBER 2020 | THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL now gain prior approval to participate in WHO-related events or meetings. According to Foreign Policy, despite the Trump administration’s July 7 notifi- cation to the United Nations that it would withdraw fromWHO in July 2021, Ameri- can officials have been trying to maintain influence at the global health agency. American diplomats had been working with WHO officials on programs fighting various infectious diseases, for example. “It seems the United States doesn’t want to completely cut its relation- ship with the WHO,” Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the magazine. “Like it or not, the U.S. can’t live without this organization.” The Trump administration planned to redirect $62 million that it still owes WHO to other health-related causes, The New York Times reported Sept. 2. But, the NYT noted, USAID would continue with plans to give $68 million to WHO to support polio eradication in Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as other work in Libya and Syria. Judge Reverses Diversity Visa Freeze A federal judge has ordered the State Department to process applications for diversity visas to immigrants from underrepresented countries, partially lifting a freeze enacted by the Trump administration in June, Jurist Legal News and Commentary reported Sept. 7. President Trump had argued that the freeze was needed to protect jobs for American workers during the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. “To be clear, there is no statutory requirement that every available diversity visa be issued each year,” Judge Amit Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia wrote in his Sept. 4 decision. “But that does not mean that the State Department could effectively extinguish the diversity program for a given year by simply sitting on its hands and letting all pending diversity visa applications time out. Doing so would ‘plainly frustrate the congressional intent’ to make available 55,000 diversity immi- grant visas each year.” In response, the State Department issued updated guidance on Sept. 9, directing embassies and consulates to begin processing visas for diversity visa lottery winners “where local health con- ditions and post resources allow.” The department said it would “pri- oritize processing applications for the 918 individuals who were named plain- tiffs” in the court case against the freeze, Bloomberg Law reported Sept. 9, as well as applicants whose consular appoint- ments were canceled in March, April or May because of the pandemic. But State also noted that diversity visa lottery winners are still subject to COVID-19-related traffic bans from China, Iran, Schengen Area member states and certain other countries. n This edition of Talking Points was compiled by Cameron Woodworth and Shawn Dorman. Time for a Deep Reappraisal We must also look to reimagine American diplomacy and the State Department for the world as it is. Congress last made a major revision to the Foreign Service Act in 1980, the law that governs much of the State Department. I believe it is time for a deep reappraisal of how our nation prioritizes diplomacy as the primary means to defend American values abroad—what capabilities we invest in to strengthen our diplomacy and how every American can have the opportunity to represent our nation abroad. —Chairman Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) at the House Foreign Affairs Com- mittee Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing, “Diversity and Diplomacy: Assessing the State Department’s Record in Promoting Diversity and Inclusion,” Sept. 22. A Troubling Pattern Based on postings and accounts by other former diplomats, Ms. Spears’ experiences appear to be part of a troubling pat- tern of mistreatment of minority U.S. government officials by CBP agents at U.S. border crossings. …Not only are these inci- dents unacceptable, they fly in the face of our American values of diversity, equality, and respect for fundamental civil rights. The vile legacy of racially profiling Americans simply based on their skin color, a quality they have no choice in whatsoever, has no place in our nation’s present nor our future. —Senate Foreign Relations Commit- tee Ranking Member Bob Menen- dez (D-N.J.), Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ben Cardin (D-Md.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in a letter to the Department of Homeland Security IG, Oct. 8. HEARD ON THE HILL JOSH