The legislators assured in their letter that former President Bolsonaro entered the US with an A-1 visa, which is granted to diplomats or officials but “since he is no longer the president of Brazil, we ask you to re-evaluate your status in the country”
A group of 46 Democratic congressmen asked the government of President Joe Biden this Thursday to revoke the diplomatic visa or any permit that the former Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, has to be on US soil.
In a letter, the legislators also demanded that the government investigate any action that may have been taken in the United States to help or coordinate the break-in of the buildings of the three branches of power that took place this weekend in Brazil by supporters of the ex-president.
“We must not allow Bolsonaro or any other former Brazilian official to obtain refuge in the US to escape justice for crimes they may have committed” in Brazil, the congressmen wrote in the letter.
The legislators assured in their letter that former President Bolsonaro entered the US with an A-1 visa, which is granted to diplomats or officials.
“As you are no longer the president of Brazil or currently serving as a Brazilian official, we ask that you reassess your status in the country to determine if there is a legal basis for your stay and revoke any diplomatic visa you may have,” the officials said. congressmen.
The US government has not yet ruled on what legal status Bolsonaro maintains in the United States.
However, State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday that people entering the US on an A-1 visa have 30 days to leave the country if they are no longer part of a government.
“If the A visa holder is no longer engaged in official business on behalf of that government, it is incumbent on that visa holder to leave the US or request a change to another immigration status within 30 days,” it said. Price to reporters.
Bolsonaro is presumably in the state of Florida, where he traveled on December 30, two days before his term ended and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva succeeded him.
According to the press, he returned Tuesday night to the house where he is staying in Orlando after, according to family sources, he was hospitalized for abdominal pain as a result of the aftermath of the attack with a knife that he suffered in 2018 .
After the attacks on Sunday, some 1,500 Bolsonaro protesters were arrested by the Brazilian authorities, after they stormed the headquarters of the three powers, with the intention of overthrowing the progressive Lula da Silva, a week after he assumed the head of state in Brazil.