President Donald Trump Brings Back Travel Ban, Names 12 Countries

President Donald Trump unveiled a controversial travel ban against a small number of countries with majority Muslim populations, and revived the policy this week. On Wednesday (June 4), President Trump signed a proclamation that slapped a new travel ban against a dozen countries and partial restrictions on seven others.




The White House shared the proclamation on its website, which detailed the Trump administration's plans to bar entry to the United States to individuals hailing from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.




In addition to the aforementioned countries, the proclamation placed partial travel restrictions on individuals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.




From the proclamation:




As President, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people. I remain committed to engaging with those countries willing to cooperate to improve information-sharing and identity-management procedures, and to address both terrorism-related and public-safety risks. Nationals of some countries also pose significant risks of overstaying their visas in the United States, which increases burdens on immigration and law enforcement components of the United States, and often exacerbates other risks related to national security and public safety.




The travel ban that was enacted in 2018 was wildly unpopular as it seemingly targeted countries that President Trump perceived to be enemies of the state. With the Republican Party holding majorities in both chambers, Trump and his administration have been emboldened to expand the travel ban to include mostly African and Muslim countries, and have the support of Republican members of Congress.




Sen. Chuck Grassley defended President Trump's renewed travel ban, stating that it was in the best interest of national security, as reported by KCRG.




"I don't know what the basis was for him making that decision, but I assume it's come because of some terrorist attacks we've had in the United States," Grassley said.




Amnesty International posted a response to the travel ban, which can be read here.



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