"For over a year, Donald Trump has spent enormous resources deporting grannies and day laborers who have contributed to the US for decades, claiming they pose a national security threat. Which makes it all the more notable that Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau cited national security when choosing to grant a journalist visa to fugitive former Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro."
"U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau instructed senior State Department officials to facilitate and approve a visa for a fugitive former Polish cabinet minister, allowing him to flee to the United States from Hungary, three people familiar with the matter said. Poland is seeking to prosecute former Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro, the architect of changes to the Polish judicial system that the EU has said undermined the rule of law during the 2015-2023 rule of the conservative Law and Justice party (PiS)."
"Instead, Landau directed senior officials from the State Department's Consular Affairs Bureau in Washington to instruct the U.S. embassy in Budapest to issue a visa for Ziobro, said three sources, one of whom said it was a journalist visa. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss non-public details about the case. As a result of Landau's intervention, the former justice minister was able to secure his visa ahead of Magyar's May 9 swearing-in."
For more than a year, large-scale deportations targeted older people and day laborers who had contributed to the United States, with national security cited as the reason. Despite that stance, Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau approved a visa for fugitive former Polish justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro. Poland seeks to prosecute Ziobro for his role in changes to the Polish judicial system that the European Union said undermined the rule of law during the 2015–2023 period under the Law and Justice party. Hungary granted Ziobro asylum, and Poland hoped he would be returned after Viktor Orban’s defeat. Landau directed State Department officials to have the U.S. embassy in Budapest issue the visa, reportedly as a journalist visa, enabling Ziobro to obtain it before Poland’s expected political transition.
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