Changes to United States visa policy shake up ESL Impact

The new Donald Trump administration has already begun to make policy changes in the world of sport that will also affect the CS2 scene, particularly ESL Impact and the upcoming ESL Impact Season 7 Finals in Dallas, Texas.

According to a report by British newspaper The Guardian, the US State Department has "ordered officials worldwide to deny visas to transgender athletes" who want to come to the US for sports competitions. The US State Department also plans to issue permanent visa bans based on "misrepresenting" sex markers.

Early this month US President Trump signed Executive Order 14201 (EO 14201), "Keeping Men out of Women's Sports". The sanctity of sex-based separation of competitors in sport (as opposed to gender-identity-based) has been a hot topic of discussion and point of contention championed by the Republican Party in the United States for some years now.

According to The Guardian, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, had issued a memo to his department to deny visas to transgender athletes who attempt to come to the US for sporting competitions. Not only that, but the directive went one step further and instructed staff to issue permanent visa bans to those found to be misrepresenting their "birth sex" on visa applications.

This memo was issued in accordance with Section 4, Subsection C of the aforementioned Executive Order, invoking powers outlined within the Immigration and Nationality Act. Certainly, this squarely places the United States into a predicament with the upcoming Los Angeles Olympic Games in 2028, but more immediately for the esports world this calls into question the viability of certain rosters in the LAN finals of ESL Impact Season 7, which are set to be hosted in Dallas from May 23rd to 25th of this year.

This has a history of happening in previously hosted events within the United States, purely due to the difficulties with the American visa system, but it will presumably only get worse instead of better with the issuance of EO 14201. As it stands now, this Executive Order has one pending challenge being litigated in the District Court of New Hampshire, Tirrell v. Edelblut, which could result in delayed or altered enforcement of the policies within. However, teams should plan for the most complicated scenario and begin to create contingency plans for substitutes in the event of a visa issue.

Crucially, all twelve European teams and all eight South American teams would require an American visa to attend the Season 7 Finals in Dallas. Just one of the eight North American teams is comprised of all Americans without any nationals from other countries on the roster, so this has the potential to be a very disruptive issue.

Teams will have until May to see how challenges to EO 14201 play out in the court system, though their visa applications will be due long before then.

If you wish to dig deeper into this new policy, check out our op-ed written by Alexander “DoktorWaldo” Waldherr, a Dust2.us writer who is also a board-certified family medicine physician.