Trump Announces Travel Ban And Restrictions On 19 Countries Set To Go Into Effect Monday | EUROtoday

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected an indicator coverage of his first time period, asserting that residents of 12 international locations could be banned from visiting the United States and people from seven others would face restrictions.

The ban takes impact Monday at 12:01 a.m., a cushion which will keep away from the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when an analogous measure took impact with nearly no discover in 2017. Trump, who signaled plans for a brand new ban upon taking workplace in January, seems to be on firmer floor this time after the Supreme Court sided with him.

Some, however not all, 12 international locations additionally appeared on the checklist of banned international locations in Trump’s first time period. The new ban contains Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

There will likely be heightened restrictions on guests from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

In a video launched on social media, Trump tied the brand new ban to Sunday’s terror assault in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the hazards posed by some guests who overstay visas. The suspect within the assault is from Egypt, a rustic that isn’t on Trump’s restricted checklist. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a vacationer visa.

Trump stated some international locations had “deficient” screening and vetting or have traditionally refused to take again their very own residents. His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of visa overstays of vacationers, enterprise guests and college students who arrive by air and sea, singling out international locations with excessive percentages of remaining after their visas expired.

“We don’t want them,” Trump stated.

The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who’ve labored to resettle its individuals. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, usually individuals who labored most carefully with the U.S. authorities throughout the two-decade-long struggle there.

Afghanistan was additionally one of many largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month interval by means of September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement his first day in workplace.

“To include Afghanistan — a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years — is a moral disgrace. It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold,” stated Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac.

Trump wrote that Afghanistan “lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures.” He additionally cited its visa overstay charges.

Haiti, which prevented the journey ban throughout Trump’s first time period, was additionally included for top overstay charges and huge numbers who got here to the U.S. illegally. Haitians proceed to flee poverty, starvation and political instability deepens whereas police and a U.N.-backed mission battle a surge in gang violence, with armed males controlling at the very least 85% of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

“Haiti lacks a central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote.

The Iranian authorities authorities supplied no fast response to being included. The Trump administration referred to as it a “state sponsor of terrorism,” barring guests apart from these already holding visas or coming into the U.S. on particular visas America points for minorities going through persecution.

Other Mideast nations on the checklist — Libya, Sudan and Yemen — all face ongoing civil strife and territory overseen by opposing factions. Sudan has an lively struggle, whereas Yemen’s struggle is basically stalemated and Libyan forces stay armed.

International support teams and refugee resettlement organizations roundly condemned the brand new ban. “This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” stated Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America.

The journey ban outcomes from a Jan. 20 govt order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” towards the U.S. and whether or not entry from sure international locations represented a nationwide safety threat.

During his first time period, Trump issued an govt order in January 2017 banning journey to the U.S. by residents of seven predominantly Muslim international locations — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

It was one of the crucial chaotic and complicated moments of his younger presidency. Travelers from these nations have been both barred from getting on their flights to the U.S. or detained at U.S. airports after they landed. They included college students and college in addition to businesspeople, vacationers and other people visiting family and friends.

The order, sometimes called the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid authorized challenges, till a model was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

The ban affected varied classes of vacationers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and a few Venezuelan authorities officers and their households.

Trump and others have defended the preliminary ban on nationwide safety grounds, arguing it was aimed toward defending the nation and never based on anti-Muslim bias. However, the president had referred to as for an specific ban on Muslims throughout his first marketing campaign for the White House.

Follow the AP’s protection of President Donald Trump at https://apnews.com/hub/donald-trump.

Amiri reported from the United Nations. Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Jon Gambrell, Ellen Knickmeyer and Danica Coto contributed to this report.