What should you know about travel bans and who could have an impact?
While immigration law allows the president to restrict travel to the United States, President Donald Trump's ban has been more drastic than previous presidents.
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump is expected to ban or severely restrict travel to the United States on Friday by citizens of more than 12 countries, including Iran and Venezuela.
Trump ordered the administration to establish criteria and procedures for screening and screening to enter the United States and submit a list of countries that do not meet them by March 21st. The order follows campaign pledges and initiatives from Trump's first inauguration date.
He also instructed the officials to identify and potentially exclude citizens from assigned countries that entered the United States during the Biden administration.
The resulting actions could be more drastic than Trump put into seven majority and seven Muslim countries during his first term in office, which caused confusion in airports and lawsuits claiming religious discrimination.
Trump issued multiple versions in 2017 until he landed on what the Supreme Court upheld, and his recent executive order directed members of his cabinet to expand their place when he took office.
Now, Trump has gone through a more rigorous process to implement the expected travel ban and sought restrictions based on the level of information the country gathers and provides to international travelers. And when his enforcement actions face legal challenges, he will benefit from even more conservative Supreme Court.
It is reportedly a list of more than 40 countries where citizens can ban or restrict entry into the United States. That list includes Afghanistan, North Korea and even a majority of Baddist Himalayan states.
The State Department declined Thursday afternoon to comment on the deliberations.
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Trump called for a travel ban on the first day
As a candidate, Trump said he would revive his travel ban, citing the need to protect the country from “radical Islamic terrorists.”
His January 20th executive order called on Cabinet members to submit a report identifying countries with very inadequate screening and screening to ensure partial or complete suspension of entry into the United States.
The report also needs to determine whether “the number of citizens from these countries” has been in and out of the United States since January 20, 2021, the first day of former President Joe Biden's term.
Trump has entrusted four individuals with the report being prepared. He is director of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Attorney General Pam Bondy, Secretary of Homeland Security Christie Noem, and National Intelligence Director Tarsi Gabbard.
The Trump administration appears to be constructing the first term ban in a different way than the first term ban, creating a three-tier list of nations that do not provide the US with the level of information it seeks or are considered a national security threat.
Countries on the “red” list are banned from travel to the US completely, but the central country, or “orange” list, faces visa restrictions. The country's lower classes are informed by the government of what is necessary to address the issue.
Travel could be banned from 11 countries, according to The New York Times, according to the draft list of travel ban recommendations. They are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
Trump previously banned travel from most countries on that list, except for visa and green cardholders. Bhutan and Cuba were not part of Trump's previous travel ban. The State Department lists Cuba as a national sponsor of terrorism.
Another 10 countries, including Russia and Belarus, have significantly restricted visas. The remaining 22 countries, including many African countries, will spend 60 days addressing security concerns. They may eventually move to the list or be ruled out completely, depending on their response.
Reuters reported on a similar memo. The list has not been finalized, and the outlet warns and may not have been approved by the Secretary of State yet.
“We're accused of the first policy research team,” said Chad Wolf, former acting executive director for DHS, executive vice president of the Trump-American First Policy Research Institute. “But there are other decisions as to whether the country will obtain travel restrictions.”
“There are other geopolitical issues as well,” Wolf added. “That's why we go to Secretary of State, so that's why others put pressure on those decisions.”
It's not much focused on most Muslim countries.
Based on publicly reported, Wolf said it sounds like the administration is planning to a country that tells them that travel restrictions are in place until they increase information sharing with the US or provide certain data.
One factor that the administration may take into consideration is how often the country reports the frequency of passport data lost or stolen to Interpol.
“The first thing we found was that many countries didn't report it in a timely manner,” said Wolf, who worked on Trump's previous travel ban.
The State Department denied the list's existence earlier in the week and said it would not create a memorandum of understanding in circulation.
“As we know through the president's executive order, there is a review to see the nature that will help us keep America safe, to address the visa issue, to see who's in the country,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday.
Unlike the first iteration of the 2017 ban that led to court agendas for discrimination against Muslims, the reported reincarnations do not focus solely on the majority of Muslim countries. Bhutan, Cuba, North Korea and Venezuela are reportedly being considered for a complete ban, but there is no Muslim majority.
The court blocked Trump's first travel ban issued in January 2017, saying the order violated people's due process rights without adequate national security justification. His administration replaced it with a second version in March 2017, blocked by another court. The Supreme Court upheld a third iteration of the travel ban, signed in September 2017.
In its 2018 decision, the Supreme Court outlined the lengthy process the government used to create a third travel ban, highlighting how certain foreigners could get exceptions to the travel ban, and argued that the Trump administration was acting in “legitimate national security interests.”
The process is similar to what Trump outlined in his January 20th executive order. However, critics have shown that fresh aspects of the new administration's policies can be challenged, such as attempts to retrospectively apply visa restrictions to individuals who entered the country during their period when Trump was not in office.
The International Refugee Assistance Program, one of the groups that the first administration called for, said the next step would depend on the expected ban.
“We've been working hard to get the most out of our business,” said Stephanie Gee, senior director of US Legal Services at IRAP.
“As long as there's a debate that behaviour is illegal, there are many organizations looking to pose challenges.”
When will the travel ban be enacted?
It appears Trump is already implementing some of his executive orders. This allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to “take immediate action” to exclude or exclude foreigners from the country without appropriate review criteria.
The order cites the advocacy of “foreign terrorists” groups and “hostile attitudes” towards “citizens, culture, government, institutions or establishment principles” as reasons for possible visa denials and removal.
The Trump administration deported kidney doctors on a work visa this month after attempting to enter the country on a flight to Boston. The Department of Homeland Security told her Hezbollah leaders in her phone that she had “sympathetic photos and videos.”
“Visa is a privilege that is not a right,” the department said in X.
“I'm a Shia Muslim,” authorities said Dr. Rasha Alawieh, according to the USA Today network. “He's a religious person. It has nothing to do with politics. It's all religious and spiritual.”
Federal authorities also arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a pro-Palestinian activist who attends Columbia University's graduate school. Halil was legally in the United States.
After his arrest, Rubio said “they could be deported, as if they were to cancel visas and green cards for American Hamas supporters.”
The State Department confirmed Thursday that it is implementing reviews of all visa programs, as required by Trump's order, but refused to say whether it has made a formal recommendation or when it will be enforced.
The Trump administration's report recommends countries for travel bans.
