Trump Makes Travel Ban Definite, Banning All Travel to the United States from Seven Countries
On Sunday president Trump issued a new order indefinitely banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the nation's covered by his original travel ban, citing threats to national security posted by letting the citizens into the country.
The new order is more extensive than the president's original travel ban, imposing permanent restrictions on travel, rather than the 90 day suspension that Trump authorized soon after taking office. Officials said that his new action was the result of deliberative, rigorous examination of security risks that were designed to avoid the chaotic roll out of his first ban. The addition of non-Muslim countries could address the legal attacks on earlier travel restriction as discrimination based on religion.
Starting next month, most citizens or Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be banned from entering the United States. Mr. Trump said in a proclamation released Sunday night, citizens of Iraq and some groups of people in Venezuela who seek to visit the United States will face restrictions or heightened scrutiny.
Mr. Trump’s original travel ban caused turmoil at airports in January and set off a furious legal challenge to the president’s authority. It was followed in March by a revised ban, which expired on Sunday even as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about its constitutionality on Oct. 10. The new order, Chad, North Korea and Venezuela are new to the list of affected countries and Sudan has been dropped, will take effect Oct. 18. “As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,” Mr. Trump said in the proclamation, which White House officials said had the same force as an executive order. He added that the restrictions will remain in effect until the governments of the affected nations “satisfactorily address the identified inadequacies.”
Officials described the new order as a much more targeted effort than the president’s earlier one. Each of the countries will be under its own set of travel restrictions, though in most cases citizens of the countries will be unable to emigrate to the United States permanently and most will be barred from coming to work, study or vacation in America.
