Trump Administration Imposes New Travel Ban on Six Countries

Yesterday, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Acting Secretary Chad Wolf announced that President Trump signed a proclamation, “which places new, tailored visa restrictions on six countries that failed to meet a series of security criteria, demonstrating that they could be a risk to the homeland.” “[T]he six countries with new travel restrictions are Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.”

“For four countries – Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria – the President has imposed travel restrictions on immigrant visas.” “Two countries – Sudan and Tanzania… the President decided to impose travel restrictions on Diversity Visas. This is a less severe sanction compared to the general restriction on immigrant visas, given the significantly fewer number of aliens affected.”

DHS Acting Secretary Wolf says the travel bans “are the result of these countries’ unwillingness or inability to adhere to our identity management, information sharing, national security, and public safety assessment criteria” laid out in President Trump’s Executive Order 13780. Trump’s Executive Order 13780, enacted in March 2017, established new “screening and vetting protocols and procedures associated with the visa-issuance process and the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP)”. Along with the new protocol came travel restrictions on Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.

DHS Acting Secretary Wolf clarified “that these restrictions are not permanent”, and “the President may remove travel restrictions at any time.”