Supreme Court removes travel ban from docket
President Donald Trump’s latest travel ban could block the issuance of tens of thousands of visas each year to people who want to immigrate to the United States or come on business or as tourists, according to a Washington Post review of State Department data, and it is threatening to shortcircuit the impending Supreme Court showdown over whether Trump can lawfully impose such wide-ranging travel restrictions.
On Monday, the Supreme Court put off — at least for now — a hearing on Trump’s previous travel ban, asking instead for briefs on whether the latest restrictions mean there is nothing left for the justices to decide.
Opponents of the ban, meanwhile, vowed to fight on, asserting that the new measure inflicted some of the same harms as the first.
“For us, this was a Muslim ban, and it remains a Muslim ban,” said Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the San Francisco chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
The newest ban is in some ways even more expansive than the last — remaining in effect indefinitely, and imposing restrictions on eight, rather than six, countries. But unlike the last ban, the restrictions vary from place to place, and countries that increase their cooperation and information-sharing with the United States might be able to find their way off the list.
For Syria and North Korea, the president’s proclamation blocks immigrants wanting to relocate to the United States and non-immigrants wishing to visit in some capacity. For Iran, the proclamation blocks both immigrants and non-immigrants, though it exempts students and those participating in a cultural exchange.
The proclamation blocks people from Chad, Libya and Yemen from coming to the United States as immigrants or on business or tourist visas, and it blocks people from Somalia from coming as immigrants. The proclamation names Venezuela, but it only blocks certain government officials.
A Washington Post review found that more than 65,000 visas were issued in fiscal 2016 that would now likely fall under the ban. The ban, though, contains a robust list of people who might qualify for a case-by-case exception, including for those with significant U.S. contacts or those wanting to visit close family members.
The ban, too, exempts those already admitted to the United States on the effective date of the proclamation — which, for those not affected by the previous travel ban, is Oct. 18.
The Supreme Court had been set to hear arguments on Trump’s previous travel ban but on Monday removed that hearing from the calendar and asked for briefs on whether the case was now moot.
One significant piece of the previous executive order — the 120-day ban on all refugees — remains in effect until Oct. 24. The latest ban leaves unclear what will happen after that.
To establish the new ban, U.S. officials conducted a worldwide review of the information countries were able to provide on their travelers wanting to come to the United States.
Initially, 16 countries were deemed inadequate, and 31 were at risk of becoming inadequate, authorities said. U.S. officials then negotiated with foreign counterparts, ultimately producing a list of eight countries that were either unable or unwilling to provide the information the United States wanted.
Sudan was dropped from the ban list, and its removal is noteworthy in part because it is one of just three countries designated by the U.S. government as state sponsors of terrorism. The other two, Iran and Syria, remain on the travel ban list.
Chad, North Korea and Venezuela were added.
Administration officials can now point to Venezuela and North Korea as being non-Muslim majority countries on the banned list, perhaps undercutting the argument of opponents that the measure is meant to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise of a Muslim ban.