The Trump administration is considering issuing sweeping travel restrictions for the citizens of dozens of countries as part of a new ban, according to sources familiar with the matter, and as per an internal memo. Trump issued an executive order on Jan 20 requiring intensified security vetting of foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats.
The memo lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. The first group of 10 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Syria, Cuba and North Korea, among others, would be set for a full visa suspension. In the second group, five countries – Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar and South Sudan – would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, with some exceptions.
In the third group, a total of 26 countries that include Belarus, Pakistan and Turkmenistan, among others, would be considered for a partial suspension of US visa issuance if their governments “do not make efforts to address deficiencies within 60 days.
A US official cautioned that there could be changes on the list and that it was yet to be approved by the administration, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. The memo lists a total of 41 countries divided into three separate groups. Full visa suspension include: Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen. Partial visa suspension (tourist, student and some other visas affected) include: Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, South Sudan
Countries recommended for a partial suspension if they do not address deficiencies include: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Belarus, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cambodia, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Pakistan, Republic of the Congo, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, East Timor, Turkmenistan, and Vanuatu.
The move harkens back to President Donald Trump’s first-term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Trump issued an executive order on Jan 20 requiring intensified security vetting of foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats.
That order directed several cabinet members to submit by Mar 21 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient”.
Trump’s directive is part of an immigration crackdown that he launched at the start of his second term. He previewed his plan in an October 2023 speech, pledging to restrict people from the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen and “anywhere else that threatens our security”.
The controversial 2017 travel ban
This proposal mirrors Trump’s controversial 2017 travel ban, which initially targeted travelers from seven majority-Muslim countries. After multiple legal battles, the Supreme Court upheld the policy in 2018.
More than a month into US President Donald Trump’s second term, his brutal crackdown on immigration and asylum seekers has already harmed countless people. Law enforcement has carried out mass raids across the United States, rounding up people. Tens of thousands have been deported, and the pathway to asylum has been blocked for tens of thousands more.
In the face of this onslaught, people have mobilized ‘en masse’ to protect vulnerable groups at the local and national levels. One piece of legislation could make a difference in this struggle: the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act, introduced to the US Congress on February 6 by Representative Judy Chu and Senator Chris Coons.
The bill would create much-needed limitations and accountability for any President intent on categorically banning refugees, asylum seekers, or people of specified faiths or nationalities from entering the US. There is growing fear that Trump is setting the stage for a resurrection of the notorious Muslim and African bans of his first term.
Eight years ago, as a freshly inaugurated president, Trump issued an executive order to fulfill his campaign promise of enacting a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” Within hours of the decree, thousands of travelers from predominantly Muslim countries were detained for hours at airports across the nation, as federal agents struggled to decipher who could enter and who would be barred.
Hundreds of families were separated, and Trump subsequently expanded the ban to include Tanzania, Sudan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria – dubbed the “African ban”. People fleeing war, starvation and other humanitarian disasters were thus cut off from seeking shelter in the US.
Over 40,000 people were denied visas due to the Muslim and African bans, which caused a 94 percent drop in Muslim refugee admissions between January and November 2017.
The traumatic impacts of the Muslim and African bans, currently rescinded, still linger years later: families separated, people deprived of critical medical treatment, travel and visa fee expenses lost, anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim hate.
Educationist/Administrator/Editor/Author/Speaker
Commencing teaching in his early twenties, Prof Aggarwal has diverse experience of great tenure in the top institutions not only as an educationist, administrator, editor, author but also promoting youth and its achievements through the nicest possible content framing. A revolutionary to the core, he is also keen to address the society around him for its betterment and growth on positive notes while imbibing the true team spirit the work force along with.
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