Despite being in the middle of an impeachment trial and the upcoming 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump is apparently focusing his efforts elsewhere. You may remember his extremely controversial travel ban that initially targeted several Muslim countries—well now he is set to expand that ban and a handful of African countries have been added to the potential list.
While plans have not been finalized as to exactly how many additional countries will be added to the list, some at the top include Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania and Eritrea. @APNews reports, seven additional nations were listed in a newly updated draft of the proposed restrictions. Reportedly, the selected countries were notified by Homeland Security officials that they could avoid being included in the travel ban if they make changes before the official announcement is made. Those specific changes have not been released to the public.
In addition to the those already mentioned, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Myanmar are also short-listed as potentially being part of the travel ban. However, several countries have allegedly already taken action or demonstrated efforts to comply in order to avoid inclusion in the travel ban. Those efforts include better border security, better sharing of identification information among nations and better travel document security.
Speaking on the expanded travel ban, Trump had this to say:
“We’re adding a couple of countries to it. We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe. You see what’s going on in the world. Our country has to be safe. So we have a very strong travel ban and we’ll be adding a few countries to it.”
The current ban suspends immigrant and non-immigrant visas to applicants from five majority-Muslim nations: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as well as Venezuela and North Korea.
The only exceptions, include students and those who have established “significant contacts” in the U.S.. These exceptions are very different from Trump’s initial ban, which suspended travel from Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen for 90 days, blocked refugee admissions for 120 days and suspended travel from Syria.
Roommates, what are your thoughts on this?
