This Tuesday, Donald Trump’s Government expanded the list of countries whose citizens are prohibited from entering the United States to include five more: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. In addition, 15 other nations are added to the list of partial restrictions and people with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority are prohibited from entering the United States, although current impediments already made it almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain visas. With the new expansion, there are a total of 39 countries with restrictions on traveling to the United States.
“The restrictions and limitations imposed by the Proclamation are necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States does not have sufficient information to assess the risks they pose, obtain the cooperation of foreign governments, enforce our immigration laws, and promote other important foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives,” justifies the White House.
The new bans are added to the measures imposed against citizens of 19 countries in response last month, which claimed the life of one agent and left the other badly injured, who is recovering favorably. The attacker, who is believed to be , led to the suspension of all visas granted to citizens of Afghanistan. Later, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also announced grants to citizens of the countries to which the travel ban was applied.
“Many of the countries with restrictions suffer from widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records, and nonexistent birth registration systems, systematically preventing accurate data verification,” the White House said.
In June, and that those of seven others would face restrictions. The ban included Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Restrictions were expanded for visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Laos and Sierra Leone will have a total ban starting this Tuesday, while the veto on non-immigrant visas for citizens of Turkmenistan is lifted “given that it has collaborated productively with the United States and has demonstrated significant progress since the previous proclamation.” Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe join the list of countries with partial restrictions.
The new restrictions include exceptions for legal permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories such as those for athletes and diplomats, and people whose entry serves the national interests of the United States.
The Secretary of Homeland Security, had already announced this month that the attack on the National Guard would bring more consequences and a ban on travel from other countries. “If they don’t have a stable government, if they don’t have a country that can support itself and tell us who those people are and help us investigate them, why should we allow people from that country to come to the United States?” Noem said in an interview with Fox on December 4.
Using an already anachronistic expression, Trump has referred to the countries with which there were travel restrictions as and has accused their citizens without offering evidence of being criminals.
“The presence of terrorists, criminal activity and extremist activity in several of the countries [restringidos] “They cause a general lack of stability and government control, which gives rise to deficiencies in the background check processes and represents direct risks to American citizens and interests when nationals of these countries are allowed to enter the United States,” the Government stated in the statement this Tuesday.
Regarding the Palestinians, the White House noted that “U.S.-designated terrorist groups actively operate in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and have murdered American citizens.”
