Donald Trump has issued a new executive order enacting sweeping travel restrictions on several countries. This revives and expands upon the travel bans he implemented during his previous term in office.
The proclamation states that citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen will face “full” restrictions on entry into the United States.
Meanwhile, the order imposes partial restrictions on the entry of nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
According to the US president, his decision was made after “considered foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism goals.” This ban follows an earlier executive order signed on January 20th, his first day back in office, where he directed his administration to compile a list of countries for potential inclusion by March 21st.
Trump has offered various reasons for these bans, citing national security concerns and anxieties about visa overstays among visitors from the affected countries.
However, critics argue that these blanket bans are discriminatory, targeting specific groups based solely on their ethnicity. They contend that, like the previous travel bans, this will likely lead to family separations. The restrictions affecting Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela could disproportionately impact US communities with large immigrant populations from those countries.
“This discriminatory policy, which limits legal immigration, not only flies in the face of what our country is supposed to stand for, it will be harmful to our economy and communities that rely on the contributions of people who come to America from this wide range of countries,” said Pramila Jayapal, a Democratic representative from Washington.
This decision arrives amidst a series of stringent immigration policies enacted by Trump, including measures to block asylum claims at the southern border and revoke temporary protected status for immigrants from nations facing significant humanitarian crises.
Trump has also signed a proclamation to restrict foreign student visas at Harvard University and ordered US consulates to conduct social media screening of every visa applicant seeking to travel to the university.
In a social media video, Trump stated that this action fulfills a promise he made in response to the recent attack at a Boulder, Colorado, event supporting Israeli hostages. The attack, carried out by an Egyptian national, “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas. We don’t want them,” he declared.
Trump also clarified that the list is “subject to revisions based on whether material improvements are made,” and that “likewise, new countries could be added as threats emerge around the world.”
Having originally implemented a travel ban targeting Muslim-majority countries early in his first term, Trump hinted at plans for a new ban during his election campaign against Kamala Harris.
“I will ban refugee resettlement from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” Trump said in September. “Remember the famous travel ban? We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world. We’re not taking them from infested countries.”
He was referencing the ban he imposed shortly after taking office in January 2017, which caused widespread disruption at airports as protestors and civil rights lawyers mobilized to aid affected travelers.
Trump justified the initial ban as necessary to combat terrorist threats. While it was initially blocked by federal courts on civil liberties grounds, the U.S. Supreme Court, which eventually gained three hardline conservative justices appointed by Trump, ultimately allowed the ban to stand.
The Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s ban did not specifically target Muslims, despite its original focus on travelers from several Muslim-majority countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen. North Korea and Venezuela were also included. The court deemed the ban to be within the president’s purview of national security powers.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) commented at the time: “The Muslim ban’s bigotry should have been as clear to the supreme court as it is to the Muslims demonized by it. Apparently, everyone but the supreme court can see the decision for what it is: an expression of animosity.”
In 2020, prior to the substantial reduction in global travel caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Myanmar, Tanzania, and Sudan were added to the list.
In 2021, the travel ban was among the first measures reversed by Joe Biden upon assuming office as Trump’s successor in the White House.
