New order restricts travel to 7 countries
Critics express concerns about Trump’s third effort to curb immigration
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Sunday issued a new order banning almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the nations covered by his original travel ban, citing threats to national security posed by letting their citizens into the country.
The new order is more far-reaching than the president’s original travel ban, imposing permanent restrictions on travel, rather than the 90-day suspension Trump authorized soon after taking office. But officials said his 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.
Starting next month, most citizens of Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Chad and North Korea will be indefinitely 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.
Trump’s original travel ban caused chaos at airports in January and set off a furious legal challenge to the president’s authority. It was followed by a revised ban in March, which expired Sunday even as the Supreme Court is set to hear arguments about its constitutionality on Oct. 10. The new order will take effect Oct. 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.”
The new order is a third attempt to make good on Trump’s campaign promise to respond to terror threats by tightening entry at the nation’s borders.
Administration officials said the new rules would not apply to legal permanent residents of the United States, and that visitors who hold valid visas from the countries listed will not have their visas revoked.
That means that students studying 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 visas remain valid. People whose visas expire will be subject to the travel ban, officials said.
People seeking access to the United States as refugees are not covered by the proclamation, officials said. Entry of refugees is currently limited by the president’s original travel ban, and officials said the administration was preparing new rules for refugees that should be announced within days.
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 toughen the country’s border against 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,” said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union.
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.
The proclamation imposes the most severe restrictions on Syria and North Korea, which Trump says fail to cooperate with the United States in any respect. All citizens from those countries will be denied visas to enter the United States once the proclamation goes into effect.
Most citizens of Chad, Libya and Yemen will be blocked from emigrating to or visiting the United States because the countries do not have the technical capability to identify and screen their travelers, and in many cases have terrorist networks in their countries, officials said.
Officials said Somalia did, barely, meet the security standards set by the United States, but will still be subject to a ban on emigration and heightened scrutiny for travel because it is a haven for terrorists. Officials said Iran was uncooperative.
In Venezuela, Trump restricted only the travel of government officials and their families.
The new travel restrictions will be in place indefinitely, officials said.
The president’s announcement could have a dramatic impact on the legal challenge to the previous travel ban, which is under consideration by the Supreme Court after the administration appealed lower court rulings that said the ban was unconstitutional and a breach of Trump’s authority.
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for Oct. 10, but legal experts said parts of the case could be moot because of the president’s decision to end that travel ban.