The Trump administration is finalizing a new ban on travel in the United States for citizens of certain countries that are broader than the versions that President Trump published during his first mandate, according to two familiar officials with the issue.
A draft recommendation circulating inside the executive branch offers a “red” list of countries whose citizens Mr. Trump could prevent from entering the United States, said that officials, who spoke subject to anonymity to discuss sensitive internal deliberations.
One of the officials said that the proposed red list is currently consisting mainly of countries whose nationals were limited under the versions of Mr. Trump’s previous travel ban. The last time, these countries included Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
The project temporarily proposes to add Afghanistan to the group whose citizens are categorically prohibited from entering the United States, according to one of the officials.
Shawn Vandiver, the leader of a non -profit group who helps to reinstall the Afghans who worked with American forces during the war, said he learned officials that Afghan citizens are subject to a full travel ban.
On Wednesday morning, the group published an emergency declaration entitled “to come from the coming Afghan travel” which urged the Afghans with valid visas which are currently outside the United States to return immediately. Later Wednesday, Reuters also reported that Afghanistan would be recommended for a full travel ban.
The recommendations also have an “orange” group of countries whose access would be reduced but not completely crossed out. For example, only certain types of visas could be issued – as for relatively affluent people traveling for business, but not immigrants or tourists – and the duration of visas could be shortened. Applicants should have interviews in person.
The countries of a third “yellow” category would have 60 days to modify certain gaps received or they would be added to one of the other two lists, officials said.
These problems may include the fact of not sharing with American information on incoming travelers, allegedly inadequate security practices to issue passports, or the sale of citizenship to people in prohibited countries, such as a flaw around restrictions.
It is not clear if people with existing visas would be exempt from the ban or if these visas were canceled. Many Afghans have been approved for resettlement in the United States as refugees or under special visas granted to people who helped the United States during the war. It is not clear either if the holders of green cards, who are approved for the permanent residence, would be assigned.
About 200,000 Afghans in their native country and 51,000 outside, half of Pakistan, are in the official pipeline to come to the United States, with tens of thousands of people ready to travel and with housing in the work or already arranged, said Vandiver, a navy veteran who is president of Afghanevac, the non-profit group.
“It is the most approved population that it is ever,” he said in an interview on Thursday. “It’s crazy how these people go through.”
He added that many veterans of the war in Afghanistan who had voted for Trump now felt Fury while the word of a possible travel ban has spread. “They say:” This is not what I voted “,” he said. “The agreement was that you had to bring our allies back to the house. And they just betray these people. “”
In one of the many decrees he issued the day of the inauguration, Trump ordered the State Department to start identifying the countries “for which the verification and screening information are so deficient that they guarantee partial or complete suspension on the admission of nationals of these countries.”
Trump gave the 60 -day State Department to finish a report for the White House with such a list – which means that it is due in about two weeks. He ordered the departments of justice and internal security and the office of the Director of National Intelligence to work with the State Department on the project.
The State Department’s Press Office said in a statement that he followed Mr. Trump’s decree and was “determined to protect our nation and its citizens by confirming the highest national security and public security standards through our visa process”, but it also refused to specifically comment on internal deliberations.
The State Department Consular Affairs Bureau was responsible for taking the lead to propose a first project, according to people familiar with the issue, but the lists for each of the three categories are still in flow.
In addition to the security specialists of other departments and intelligence agencies, the regional offices of the State Department and American Embassies around the world examine the project. They give comments on the question of whether the gaps identified in particular the countries are accurate or if there is a political argument – like not to risk disturbing cooperation on another priority – to reconsider, including some.
Trump’s policy to categorically prohibit the entry to citizens of certain countries resumed his campaign call in December 2015, for “a total and complete closure of Muslims entering the United States until the representatives of our country can understand what is happening.”
After taking office in January 2017, Trump published what has become the first in an iterative series of prohibitions. They initially focused on a set of Muslim majority countries, but also encompassed other low -income and non -white countries, including in Africa.
The first ban on travel caused chaos, in part because Mr. Trump expressed it without warning. Some people have learned that they had only been excluded from the entrance after their arrival in the United States. Major demonstrations took place in airports against the new administration.
The courts prevented the government from enforcing the first two versions, but the Supreme Court finally allowed a prohibition rewritten to take effect.
When Joseph R. Biden Jr. became president in January 2021, he canceled Mr. Trump’s travel prohibitions as one of his first acts and returned to an individualized verification system for people in these countries.
The proclamation of Mr. Biden described the prohibitions to travel “simply badly”, calling them “a task on our national conscience” and “incompatible with our long history of people of all confessions and no faith at all”. Actions, said Mr. Biden, “also” undermined our national security “by endangering” our global network of alliances and partnerships “.
In his executive decree in January, by triggering the restoration and expansion of travel prohibitions, Trump said that he was acting to protect American citizens “foreigners who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, marry hateful ideology or otherwise exploit immigration laws for malicious purposes”.
