Trump Issues a New Travel Ban

Citing threats to national security, President Trump has issued a new order indefinitely banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries: Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, and North Korea.

The new order is more far-reaching than the president’s original travel ban, which imposed a 90-day suspension on travel to the U.S. from seven majority-Muslim countries. But officials said the president’s new action was the result of a deliberative, rigorous examination of security risks that was designed to avoid the chaotic rollout of his first ban. And the addition of non-Muslim countries could address the legal attacks on earlier travel restrictions as discrimination based on religion. (Upfront’s Supreme Court article in the October 9 issue will address the constitutional issues raised by the original ban.)

Starting next month, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad, and North Korea will be banned from entering the United States, 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.

Trump’s original travel ban, issued a week after he took office, affected Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. It caused turmoil at airports in January and set off a furious legal challenge to the president’s authority that had reached the Supreme Court. 

Iraq was later removed from the second version of the travel ban in March after American officials said Iraq had improved its ability to screen passengers and share information with the United States. The new order—which adds Chad, North Korea, and Venezuela to the list of affected countries and drops Sudan—will take effect October 18.

“As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people,” 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.”

For Trump, the new travel ban is a third attempt to make good on his campaign promise to respond to terrorist threats by tightening entry at the nation’s borders. In December 2015, he called for a complete ban on travel to the United States by Muslims “until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” though he later denied that he had sought a religious test on travel.

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 immigrate to the United States permanently and most will be barred from coming to work, study, or vacation in America.

Iran, for example, will still be able to send its citizens on student exchanges, though such visitors will be subject to enhanced screening. Certain government officials of Venezuela and their families will be barred from visiting the United States. Somalis will no longer be allowed to immigrate to the United States, but may visit with extra screening.

Administration officials said that the new rules would not apply to legal permanent residents of the United States, and that visitors who currently hold valid visas from the countries listed will not have their visas revoked.

That means that students already in the United States can finish their studies, and employees of businesses in the United States who are from the targeted countries may stay for as long as their existing visas remain valid. People holding visas that expire will be subject to the travel ban, officials said.

People seeking access to the United States as refugees are not affected by this proclamation, officials said. Entry of refugees is currently suspended by the president’s original travel ban, but that suspension is scheduled to expire next month. 

Reaction to the president’s announcement was swift, as some critics of the original travel ban expressed similar concerns about the president’s latest effort to keep out potential terrorists and criminals.

“Six of President Trump’s targeted countries are Muslim. The fact that Trump has added North Korea—with few visitors to the U.S.—and a few government officials from Venezuela doesn’t obfuscate the real fact that the administration’s order is still a Muslim ban,” says Anthony D. Romero, the executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“President Trump’s original sin of targeting Muslims cannot be cured by throwing other countries onto his enemies list,” Romero adds.

But administration officials—who have long rejected the characterization of the president’s travel restrictions as a “Muslim ban”—noted that the latest effort also applies to non-Muslim countries and was based on a rigorous evaluation of each country’s security capabilities.

One official who briefed reporters on Sunday evening insisted that the president’s travel restrictions were “never, ever, ever” based on race, religion, or creed.

In a statement released by the White House, Trump defended the new proclamation, saying that “we cannot afford to continue the failed policies of the past, which present an unacceptable danger to our country. My highest obligation is to ensure the safety and security of the American people, and in issuing this new travel order, I am fulfilling that sacred obligation.”

Homeland Security officials had described the previous ban as a temporary pause on travel from certain countries to allow for the review of security measures. By contrast, the new travel restrictions will be in place indefinitely, officials said. The United States will consider lifting the restrictions on those countries affected only if they meet the new minimum standards, they said.

The president’s announcement could have a dramatic impact on the Supreme Court case involving the previous travel ban.  Lower courts had ruled that ban unconstitutional, and the Trump administration had appealed to the Supreme Court. The Court was set to hear arguments in the case on October 10, but today canceled those arguments. Instead, the Court is asking lawyers from both parties to address “whether, or to what extent, the proclamation” may render the case moot. Other parts of the case, including restrictions on refugees coming into the United States, were not affected by Sunday’s announcement.