The U.S. Department of State has imposed visa restrictions on 26 individuals it claims are connected to illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing and related activities.
“Protecting the bounty of the world's oceans from illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing is a US global priority under [U.S. President Donald Trump] and [U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio]. Today the [U.S. Department of State] used a new policy to restrict visa issuance for 24 individuals and revoked the visas of former Argentine official Pablo Ferrara and Mexican national Jose Ali Amado for enriching themselves through such activities. Those who illegally deplete the fishing resources available to the US and the world are not welcome in our country,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said in a 20 May social media post.
Ferrara was accused of engaging in “corrupt activities” that enabled IUU Fishing and harmed U.S. commercial fishers, while Amador was accused of illegally harvesting endangered fish and fueling trafficking operations on the U.S./Mexico border. The federal government did not name the 24 other individuals targeted in the action.
The State Department said the action was the first use of “a new tool in the Department’s more assertive global approach to protecting the U.S. fishing industry and global fish resources.” The government did not elaborate on what the new tool is or what policy it used to impose the visa restrictions, but noted that the actions were taken in accordance with Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act.
“The United States and every other country that engages in fishing must effectively manage its fisheries, and the actions of these individuals who seek to ignore the rules for short-term, selfish gain at the expense of U.S. consumers and producers must stop. With these visa restrictions we are sending a clear message: people who seek to enrich themselves through IUU fishing are not welcome in the United States,” the State Department said in its announcement.
Some U.S. lawmakers have been pushing to give the government more power to sanction individuals and businesses connected to IUU fishing. The Protecting Global Fisheries Act, for example, would grant the president the power to sanction foreign persons or vessels that participate or enable IUU fishing. The Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act, meanwhile, would create a blacklist of vessels connected to IUU fishing and ban then from U.S. waters.
