Trump Plans to Use Travel Ban for Chilling New Immigration Rule

The countries targeted by the ban were Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Partial restrictions were imposed on Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, with citizens of these countries prohibited from entering the United States permanently or receiving specific visas. The new rule would affect immigrants who came to the U.S. legally before Trump’s ban.

Administration officials say countries on the list have poor screening and vetting practices, but critics, like Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council, say that it makes “discrimination based on national origin…official government policy.”

“Having something that applies to you based on your country is absurd,” said Doug Rand, a senior Citizenship and Immigration Services official under the Biden administration. Times. “It’s a radical change.”