Donald Trump's rhetoric against immigration continues to rear its head as the Trump administration announced plans to impose further travel restrictions to 7 countries. The travel restrictions will not apply as absolute travel bans for the people in the selected countries but restrictions are more likely to be placed on specific types of visas.
Ever since Donald Trump assumed the presidency of the United States, his resolute stance against immigrants, which many say is inspired by his racist attitudes, has vehemently gained momentum. What he seeks to aim towards is a scenario where fewer and fewer people have access to the United States.
The 7 selected countries for travel restrictions include Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar. From this list it is clear African countries are going to be affected the most by the new travel restrictions if they are enacted. The restrictions will be targeted at specific types of visas such as business visas or visitor visas. Essentially, it will be a partial immigration ban.
Trump is also striving towards excluding some people from countries that have a green card from entering the United States. A green card implies a country that has a less number of people migrating to the US. He argues that the green card system allows undesirable people into the US and for that matter that policy should be discontinued.
These proposed changes are subject to review and consideration by the departments of Homeland Security and State, in conjunction with the White House. But President Trump has the final powers to effect a decision on the proposed immigration bans.
The countries mentioned here are said to have the highest numbers of people who overstay their visas in the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal, "In the 2018 fiscal year, 24% of Eritreans on business or visitor visas overstayed their permits, along with 15% of Nigerians and 12% of people from Sudan. Those compared with a total overstay rate in the category of 1.9%." This is evidence supplied by the department of Homeland Security in buttressing the Trump's seemingly urgent need to ban travellers from these countries from entering the United States.
When Trump started his term in 2017, he caused a stir worldwide after issuing an executive order that suspended refugee resettlement and barred nationals from seven majority-Muslim countries.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of travel restrictions to these countries: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, along with Venezuela and North Korea.
As election season is hastening, Trumps seeks to rally his supporters on this point of barring individuals coming from certain countries entry to the United States. It is one of his fundamental political doctrines: immigrant exclusion. It is yet to be seen whether the new proposed moves will be put into law.
Header image credit - CNN