Walled-off America: Trump travel restriction on 41 countries in the works

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The Trump administration is preparing a three-tier travel restriction that will affect entry to the US from 41 countries, including an outright ban for 11 nations like Afghanistan and Bhutan. This move, a significant expansion of the previous travel ban, has caused alarm among potential immigrants, with final decisions due soon.

TOI correspondent from Washington: The Trump administration is finalizing a three-level travel restriction that would curtail entry to the United States by citizens from 41 countries, including a “red list” of 11 countries, notably Afghanistan and surprisingly Bhutan, for whom doors to the US would be closed.

India and China are not in any of the three proposed lists.

The “red list” whose citizens would be categorically barred from the US includes Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen — besides Afghanistan and Bhutan.

The “orange list” of 10 countries includes Russia, Pakistan, and Myanmar, entry of whose nationals would be curtailed but not completely banned. These countries would be eligible for only certain types of short-term non-immigrant visas which would require in-person interviews.

A third “yellow list” of 20 countries, mostly in Africa and the Caribbean, would have 60 days to address perceived vetting or security deficiencies before facing restrictions. Failure to comply could move them to the orange or red lists.

The restrictions, a significant expansion in Trump 2.0 of the Muslim country specific travel ban during Trump 1.0, sent shock waves across much of the world for which, warts and all, the U.S remains a “shining city on the hill” as Ronald Reagan put it felicitously, and a largely welcoming country.

While officials said the proposals, first reported in the New York Times and Reuters, are still being finalized and no final decisions have been made, there was panic among prospective immigrants and travelers about when it would be implemented, and what would happen to those who already have extant U.S visas.

Pakistanis, who have arguably the largest diaspora in the US among the 41 listed countries, were particularly freaked out since the NYT list placed their country in the orange list and Reuters put it in the yellow list.

There was also some mystery as to why Bhutan was in the red list, and why Russia and North Korea, whose leaders are favorably viewed by the Trump dispensation, made the yellow list.

But the proposals are said to be still in a draft stage, leaked ostensibly because it arose from a January 20 Trump executive order requiring the State Department to finalize the ban in 60 days, which means it is due in just over a week.

Trump’s first travel ban during his previous administration was upheld by the US Supreme Court after a challenge, but it was revoked by his successor Joe Biden, who called it “a stain on our national conscience” and “inconsistent with our long history of welcoming people of all faiths and no faith at all.”

During his election campaign for a second term, Trump pledged to reinstate the ban and wasted no time on his first day in office with an executive order he said is meant to protect American citizens “from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.”