President Trump announced on Jan. 31 he’ll expand the existing travel ban to six more countries. They are added to the current seven countries currently under travel restrictions: Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
What countries are added to the travel restrictions?
Presidential Proclamation 9983 restricts the issuance of immigrant visas — for those seeking to live or work in the U.S. permanently – from nationals from Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan and Nigeria. Trump’s proclamation also suspends the diversity visa lottery program for nationals of Tanzania and Sudan. These new restrictions will not apply to tourist, business or other nonimmigrant travel.
Trump has cited national security concerns. The Department of Homeland Security completed a security review of countries and considered to what extent the countries share information on passports and prospective bad actors, as well as whether the country poses an elevated national security risk in relation to crime, terrorism and illegal immigration.
Trump’s presidential proclamation lists Feb. 21 as the effective date.
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Yes. Chad was removed from the list in 2018. And countries will be reviewed every six months if they’ve improved their security cooperation with the United States, Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf said.
Democrats have panned Trump’s actions as a Muslim ban, based on Trump’s stated intention during his 2016 campaign in calling for “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.”
The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday is expected to pass the “No Ban Act” which would repeal Trump’s travel bans and prevents another president from targeting religious groups from entering the country. The bill is authored by Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., in the House. Republicans have rejected the legislation as a knee-jerk attempt by Democrats undercut Trump and his efforts to protect national security.
