Promise of legal action over Trump’s new travel ban
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed a new travel ban on Monday that administration officials said they hoped would end legal challenges over the matter by imposing a 90-day ban on the issuance of new visas for citizens of six majority-Muslim nations.
In addition, the nation’s refugee programme will be suspended for 120 days, and it will not accept more than 50 000 refugees in a year, down from the 110 000 cap set by the Obama administration.
Trump signed the new ban out of public view, according to White House officials. The order will not take effect until March 16.
The new guidelines mark a dramatic departure from Trump’s original ban. They lay out a far more specific national security basis for the order, block the issuance of only new visas, and name just six of the seven countries included in the first executive order, omitting Iraq.
The order also details specific sets of people who would be able to apply for case-by-case waivers to the order, including those previously admitted to the US for “a continuous period of work, study, or other long-term activity”, those with “significant business or professional obligations” and those seeking to visit or live with family.
“This executive order responsibly provides a needed pause, so we can carefully review how we scrutinise people coming here from these countries of concern,” Attorney-General Jeff Sessions said.
Even before the ink was dry, though, leading Democrats and civil liberties groups asserted that the new order was legally tainted in the same way as the first one: it was a thinly disguised Muslim ban.
“While the White House may have made changes to the ban, the intent to discriminate against Muslims remains clear,” said New York Attorney-General Eric Schneiderman, who had joined the legal fight against the first ban. “This doesn’t just harm the families caught in the chaos of President Trump’s draconian policies – it’s diametrically opposed to our values, and makes us less safe.”
Omar Jadwat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said: “The only way to actually fix the Muslim ban is not to have a Muslim ban.”
Meanwhile, Nigeria has advised its citizens against any non-urgent travel to America until the US clarifies its visa rules. Although the country was not among those affected by Trump’s initial travel ban, an adviser to Nigerian President Muhammadu Buharu said there had been several cases in which Nigerians with valid US visas had been denied entry. Washington Post and ANA