Trump weighing new travel restrictions
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is weighing the next iteration of his controversial travel ban, which could include new, more tailored restrictions on travelers from additional countries.
The Department of Homeland Security has recommended the president impose the new, targeted restrictions on foreign nationals from countries it says refuse to share sufficient information with the U.S. or haven’t taken necessary security precautions.
The restrictions could vary by country, officials said.
Trump’s ban on visitors from six Muslim-majority nations, which sparked protests and a flurry of lawsuits, is set to expire Sunday, 90 days after it took effect.
“The acting secretary has recommended actions that are tough and that are tai- lored, including restrictions The recommendations and enhanced screening for were first reported by the certain countries,” Miles Wall Street Journal on FriTaylor, counselor day.toacting Homeland Security SecreTrump’s travel ban exetary Elaine Duke, told recutive orders remain one of porters on a conference call the most controversial acFriday. tions of his administration.
But officials refused to The ban, which went into say how many countries — effect in June, barred citiand which countries — zens of Iran, Libya, Somalia, might be affected, insisting Sudan, Syria and Yemen the president had yet to who lacked a “credible make a final decision. claim of a bona fide relation
Trump huddled with ship with a person or entity Duke, Attorney General Jeff in the United States” from Sessions, Secretary of State entering the country. Rex Tillerson, his director of The Supreme Court is national intelligence and his scheduled to hear oral argunational security adviser ments on the constitutionalFriday to discuss the issue, ity of the ban next month. White House spokeswoman Officials described the Lindsay Walters said. process of reaching the new
Taylor said the recomrecommendations as far mendations were based on more deliberate and systemwhether countries were atic than Trump’s original providing U.S. authorities travel ban order, which was with enough information to signed just days after he validate the identities of took office with little conpotential immigrants and sultation or input outside visitors, and to determine the White House. whether they posed a DHS said it had worked threat. with other agencies to de- velop a comprehensive new baseline for foreign nationals based on factors like whether their countries issued passports with biometric information to prevent fraud and shared information about travelers’ terrorrelated and criminal histories.
“Our guiding principle,” Taylor said, “was this: We need to know whois coming into our country. We should be able to validate their identities, and we should be able to confirm that our foreign partners do have information suggesting such individuals may represent a threat to the United States.”
The U.S. then shared the new baseline requirements with every foreign government in July and gave them 50 days to comply.
While most countries already met the standards, officials said some that didn’t have made changes that put them in compliance.
But other countries were unable or “deliberately unwilling” to comply. Citizens of those countries would be denied entry or face other travel restrictions until their governments made changes.
Trump had originally tried to ban the entry of nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iraq, in his January order, but scaled back his efforts in a more narrowly tailored version written to better withstand legal scrutiny in March.
Trump later derided that second order on Twitter as “watered down” and “politically correct.”
After a bomb partially exploded on a London subway last week, Trump again called for a tougher ban.
“The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific — but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!” he wrote on Twitter.
The administration has argued the ban was necessary to give it time to complete a thorough review of screening procedures and information sharing to make sure that those who enter the country don’t pose a safety risk.
Critics accuse the president of overstepping his authority and violating the Constitution’s protections against religious bias by targeting Muslims. Trump had called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” during his campaign.
The American Civil Liberties Union, one of the groups challenging the ban in court, described the proposed changes as “an apparent effort to paper over the original sin of the Muslim ban.”
A new travel policy could also complicate t he Supreme Court’s review, scheduled for argument on Oct. 10. The court could order the parties to submit written arguments about what should happen next, and it might dismiss the case or return it to lower courts for a fresh analysis of the changed circumstances.