How the new Trump travel ban on 12 countries differs from his previous ‘Muslim ban'

Indian Express

2 days ago

Effective Monday (June 9), citizens from 12 nations, primarily from Africa and the Middle East, will be denied entry into the US, following a proclamation signed by President Donald Trump on Wednesday (June 4). The move revives an effort from his first term (2017-21) to ban entry to vast numbers of immigrants and visitors.
Citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be banned from entry. The proclamation also announced restrictions on people travelling from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
While Trump has batted for banning entry to Muslim migrants and visitors during his first term, his efforts to institute a travel ban faced a Supreme Court challenge before it was implemented in a limited capacity. This ban was revoked by Joe Biden when he became President in 2021.
The current ban, while expected, is expected to hold up against court challenges, and builds on an executive order signed on his first day, authorising US national security agencies to conduct 'a robust assessment of the risk that countries posed to the United States, including regarding terrorism and national security.'
The present move comes on the heels of a terror attack by an Egyptian man in Colorado earlier this week, with the Trump administration officials promising a crackdown in its aftermath.
'The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas,' Trump said while announcing the travel ban. 'We don't want them.'
Here is what to know about the new ban, and how it compares to his efforts from his first term.
In a Fact Sheet shared by the White House, the Trump administration said that the country-specific bans would 'encourage cooperation with the subject countries in recognition of each country's unique circumstances'. This opens the possibility for each country to seek bilateral talks and discussions with the US to ease the restrictions, in an effort similar to the trade deals following Trump's tariff announcements.
The countries thus far have been identified based on:
This rationale has also been used to restrict entry to people from seven nations, without instituting an outright ban.
Countries Identified
Travel Ban
State-sponsored terrorism, or a safe haven for terrorists
Iran, Somalia, Libya, and Afghanistan
Cuba
Lack of a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents
Afghanistan, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen
Venezuela
High visa overstay rate
Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Haiti, Sudan
Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela
Not accepting their removable nationals
Burma (Myanmar), Eritrea, Iran, Somalia
Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Venezuela
The fact sheet explicitly calls Iran and Cuba state sponsors of terrorism, and Somalia a terrorist safe haven. Interestingly, it recognises that Afghanistan is controlled by the Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, without outright condemning them.
The fact sheet also sees 'hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens' who entered the US during Biden's term as a national security threat.
It also notes that the governments in Yemen and Somalia lack command and control of their territories, with Somalia in particular standing out for the extent to which this is the case.
The ban exempts certain categories of individuals from the travel ban:
For one, the current ban must be viewed in the context of Trump's larger, systematic crackdown on immigration. Since his return to the White House in January, he imposed a national emergency at the country's southern border, denying entry to asylum-seekers, has authorised nationwide immigration raids, and barred international admissions to Harvard University.
Legal experts cited in a report in The New York Times believe the current iteration of the travel ban would withstand legal scrutiny better than the efforts in his first term.
'They seem to have learned some lessons from the three different rounds of litigation we went through during the first Trump administration,' Stephen Vladeck, a professor at Georgetown University Law Center told the NYT. 'But a lot will depend upon how it's actually enforced — and whether it's applied in ways that are themselves unlawful or even unconstitutional.'
Vladeck noted that the announcement came after several months of Trump's inauguration, compared to the ban in the first term that came into place just a week after he became President.
In the run-up to the 2016 US elections and after becoming President in 2017, Trump repeatedly expressed his desire to impose a 'Muslim ban', a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.' This was accompanied by incendiary rhetoric, with Trump saying 'Islam hates us' and that the US was 'having problems with Muslims coming into the country.'
Further, this iteration of the travel ban does not single out Muslim nations, but focuses on administrative issues like visa overstay, or a threat to national security from political instability from the other nation.
Trump enacted his first travel ban on January 27, 2017, barring entry to citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for a 90-day period. This was overturned by a federal judge the next month.
A second attempt at a travel ban on all these countries, barring Iraq, was made that March, and spared individuals with an existing green card or valid visa. This was overturned by two federal judges that month, who ruled that it was illegal to ban travel from half a dozen countries.
A third travel ban was announced in September 2017, barring entry to most citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. The move exempted Iranian nationals with valid student and exchange visitor visas. Chad was subsequently removed from this list after its administration reached out to the US. This ban was finally upheld by the Supreme Court in June 2018, which said the president has authority over national security concerns relating to immigration.
A fourth travel ban was announced in January 2020, banning entry to immigrants from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania. Tourists and visitors entering the US temporarily were exempted.
All travel bans were subsequently revoked by Biden, upon assuming the presidency in 2021.