[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 3 (Monday, January 19, 2004)]
[Pages 61-62]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]
<R04>
Proclamation 7750--To Suspend Entry as Immigrants or Nonimmigrants of
Persons Engaged In or Benefiting From Corruption
January 12, 2004
By the President of the United States
of America
A Proclamation
In light of the importance of legitimate and transparent public
institutions to world stability, peace, and development, and the serious
negative effects that corruption of public institutions has on the
United States efforts to promote security and to strengthen democratic
institutions and free market systems, and in light of the importance to
the United States and the international community of fighting
corruption, as evidenced by the Third Global Forum on Fighting
Corruption and Safeguarding Integrity and other intergovernmental
efforts, I have determined that it is in the interests of the United
States to take action to restrict the international travel and to
suspend the entry into the United States, as immigrants or
nonimmigrants, of certain persons who have committed, participated in,
or are beneficiaries of corruption in the performance of public
functions where that corruption has serious adverse effects on
international activity of U.S. businesses, U.S. foreign assistance
goals, the security of the United States against transnational crime and
terrorism, or the stability of democratic institutions and nations.
[[Page 62]]
Now, Therefore, I, George W. Bush, President of the United States of
America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws
of the United States, including section 212(f) of the Immigration and
Nationality Act of 1952, 8 U.S.C. 1182(f), and section 301 of title 3,
United States Code, hereby find that the unrestricted immigrant and
nonimmigrant entry into the United States of persons described in
section 1 of this proclamation would, except as provided in sections 2
and 3 of this proclamation, be detrimental to the interests of the
United States.
I therefore hereby proclaim that:
Section 1. The entry into the United States, as immigrants or
nonimmigrants, of the following persons is hereby suspended:
(a) Public officials or former public officials whose solicitation
or acceptance of any article of monetary value, or other benefit, in
exchange for any act or omission in the performance of their public
functions has or had serious adverse effects on the national interests
of the United States.
(b) Persons whose provision of or offer to provide any article of
monetary value or other benefit to any public official in exchange for
any act or omission in the performance of such official's public
functions has or had serious adverse effects on the national interests
of the United States.
(c) Public officials or former public officials whose
misappropriation of public funds or interference with the judicial,
electoral, or other public processes has or had serious adverse effects
on the national interests of the United States.
(d) The spouses, children, and dependent household members of
persons described in paragraphs (a), (b), and (c) above, who are
beneficiaries of any articles of monetary value or other benefits
obtained by such persons.
Sec. 2. Section 1 of this proclamation shall not apply with respect
to any person otherwise covered by section 1 where entry of the person
into the United States would not be contrary to the interests of the
United States.
Sec. 3. Persons covered by sections 1 and 2 of this proclamation
shall be identified by the Secretary of State or the Secretary's
designee, in his or her sole discretion, pursuant to such standards and
procedures as the Secretary may establish.
Sec. 4. For purposes of this proclamation, ``serious adverse effects
on the national interests of the United States'' means serious adverse
effects on the international economic activity of U.S. businesses, U.S.
foreign assistance goals, the security of the United States against
transnational crime and terrorism, or the stability of democratic
institutions and nations.
Sec. 5. Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to derogate
from United States Government obligations under applicable international
agreements.
Sec. 6. The Secretary of State shall have responsibility for
implementing this proclamation pursuant to such procedures as the
Secretary may, in the Secretary's discretion, establish.
Sec. 7. This proclamation is effective immediately.
Sec. 8. This proclamation is not intended to, and does not, create
any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or
in equity by any party, against the United States, its departments,
agencies, or other entities, its officers or employees, or any other
person.
In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twelfth day of
January, in the year of our Lord two thousand four, and of the
Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty-
eighth.
George W. Bush
[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 9:09 a.m., January 13,
2004]
Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on January
14.