A change in Department of Homeland Security’s position vis-a-vis a group of individuals.
Trump administration in 2019 designated IRCG a terrorist organization.
For those who don’t know know what IRCG is, it is a wing of the Iranian military that was established at the outset of the Islamic Republic of Iran in year 1979. Iran essentially has two branches of military. One is the regular military that consists of army, air force, and the Navy, and then there is the IRCG (Islamic Revolutionary Corps Guard or “Sepahe Pasdarane Jomhuriye Eslami” in Farsi.
Why does this matter to US or to a US reader?
Here is how: Military service is mandatory in Iran as in many other countries. At age 18 upon graduation from high school, if male high school graduates have not been admitted into a university already, they must immediately register, and enter the armed forces for two years.
The way this process works is by receiving a notice at your address after high school, and you would be told on a certain date to go to a certain location, which is usually a school or a sports stadium. There, some military officer would call your name, hand you a card, and the unit you were designated to attend as part of your military service. No one had any control over this process, unless you knew people higher up in the system of course. You get your unit, and you must appear at a certain date at your designated office to register.
Well, some people get sent to army divisions, and some people get sent to an IRCG unit.
This process is involuntary, and mandatory. An 18 year kid has to show up at some address to attend military service. With Trump administration’s designation of IRCG as a terrorist organization, State Department started treating all people who had to attend mandatory military service at age 18 in one of the IRCG branches as terrorist, and inadmissible into US in any shape or form.
Think about it. It’s almost like holding someone accountable for having received a vaccine at age 2 at a hospital that was later considered to be an illicit entity. How can a 2 year old, or an 18 year old decide what to do that age. You cannot object or not attend. Holding someone accountable for the larger organization’s misconduct in any shape or form is simply Ludacris.
Now you have a host of people who cannot enter US for legitimate reasons and via legitimate grounds,
Just because they had to pass mandatory military service for an organization they did not even know at that time. This issue has slowly snowballed in the past year to the point that larger law firms were pulling forces to start class action suits against the US Government. President Biden’s team acted and responded properly, and with a reasonable approach, and enacted the mandate above to provide relief to those who were essentially innocent bystanders.
This mandate does not eliminate Trump’s designation of IRCG as as terrorist organization. But places the burden on each individual to demonstrate their participation was in fact involuntary, forced, and without requisite intent or state of mind. Voice of reason prevailed, and while US national security is not going to be jeopardized in any way, innocent bystanders will also not be penalized here.
If you or a loved one are experiencing any of these things, please don’t hesitate to send us a message.