Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the Amity Treaty and Trump's recent announcement regarding a "travel ban". Let me go ahead and read from Reuters and again this is early moments. I just heard about this today, as of the kind of this video, so the exact ramifications of this remain to be seen. We are going to continue to do the analysis; we will keep you updated. But that said, quoting directly from reuters.com, the article is titled: Trump Administration to suspend Immigrant Visa processing for 75 Nations. Quoting directly: "US President Donald Trump's Administration is suspending processing for immigrant visas for applicants from 75 countries, a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday, as part of Washington's intensifying immigration crackdown. Trump has pursued a sweeping Immigration Crackdown since returning to office in January. His administration has aggressively prioritized immigration enforcement, sending Federal Agents to major U.S. cities and sparking violent confrontations with both migrants and U.S. citizens. While he campaigned on stopping illegal immigration into the United States, his administration has also made legal immigration more difficult. 

Yeah, I've made my critique of this known in prior videos. I'm very much in favour of Trump's endeavours and Mr. Holman's endeavours etc. with regard to illegal immigration, the problems along the border and even with regard to ICE and Immigration enforcement with regard to deportations. Now that said, where they are shaking down and generally harassing American citizens and even Lawful Permanent Residents or somebody with a Non-immigrant Visa that's in the United States legally, that's a serious problem. But that being said, I understand the underlying argument. That said, quoting further: "While he campaigned on stopping illegal immigration into the United States, his administration has also made legal immigration more difficult."

Yeah, again reiterating here. That's my issue. We've got people lined up, queued up from Thailand across the Pacific trying to do this in good faith, trying to do this the right way and what do we get for it, what are these people getting for it? Well a big bunch of nothing it looks like. That said, quoting further: "This Administration has proven itself to have the most anti-legal immigration agenda in American history," David Bier, Cato's Director of Immigration Studies and The Selz Foundation Chair in Immigration Policy said in a statement." And then if you go down here to the full list of countries, Thailand is listed. And again this is from Reuters, so this is fairly - I view Reuters as a pretty credible source. A couple of things here. One, I have discussed this before in other videos. It looks like there may be exemptions especially as it pertains to family-based immigration; we will get to that shortly.

That said, the reason for the video, look the United States and Thailand, Thailand is the US' oldest ally in Asia. I don't understand why we are doing this. And meanwhile it is not a developing country, it's a developed country; it’s not the same as other countries. Yes, there are different parts of Thailand and different folks in Thailand live at different levels of the socioeconomic strata, but it's not third world over here. I don't know why Thailand is being sort of lumped in with that. There are other Southeast Asian countries noted in that list: Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar most notably, but again that the diplomatic history alone between those countries and the United States compared to Thailand distinguish the jurisdictions substantially; again I don't understand why this is happening. 

Meanwhile, something to keep in mind. Look, the United States and Thailand have a Treaty. It was ratified in 1966. That ratification pursuant to Article 6 of the US Constitution makes that Treaty the supreme law of the land. There are certain visas that stem from the Treaty, most notably Treaty Trader visas. I don't know what the exact ramifications of this are. We are still doing the research on this. I have made a video contemporaneously with this one where I did an ALERT to let people know that this is an issue. But again, we're just hearing about this announcement, and I don't know exactly what this means or what exactly the ramifications are. In prior announcements talking about Laos and Myanmar specifically, it seemed to say that or suggest at least, that there were exemptions for family-based categories period, that family-based categories might be exempted if it's marriage or relationship with a US citizen especially. Again I would presume that if there are those exemptions they would carry over to Thailand. 

That being said, again this is all still sort of up in the air. I'm trying to figure this out and trying to not provide conjecture but more direct legal analysis, and I will continue to do so as this situation unfolds.