The Trump administration could soon implement a travel ban to the US for citizens of more than forty countries, sources suggested on Saturday.
The New York Times published three draft lists naming 43 countries subject to different levels of travel restrictions for each list, while also Reuters later confirmed having seen an internal memo that listed a total forty-one countries divided into three separate groups.
The news come after President Trump had issued an executive order when he took office in January which gave competent authorities sixty days’ time to identify countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”
That sixty days’ deadline is due to expire next Friday, March 21.
The impending travel ban would add to President Trump’s controversial immigration policy that has so far been marked by a sharp increase in mass deportations.
A few of the countries on the leaked draft lists were among President Trump’s first-term travel bans, but most are new entries, analysts observe.
The eleven countries on the “red” list, whose citizens would be flatly barred from entering the United States, are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen, according to The New York Times.
The “orange” list, which includes Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan, would face partial suspensions that would impact tourist and student visas as well as other immigrant visas, but exempt affluent business travelers.
Last, in the “yellow” list, more than twenty countries, including Liberia, Zimbamwe, and Malawi, would be given 60 days to clear up perceived deficiencies, and if they did not comply, they would be moved onto one of the other lists.
It remained unclear whether people with existing visas or green cards for permanent residencies would be exempted from the ban, or if their permissions would be canceled.
The move is reminiscent of a similar travel ban during Trump’s first term as President of the United States.
A total fifteen countries, most of them being Muslim-majority, had been included in the numerous revisions of Trump’s travel bans between 2017 and 2021.
Judges in several states blocked the initial ban, claiming that it targeted Muslim countries and discriminated against people for their nationality without justification, thus violating U.S. immigration law. The measure was eventually upheld by the Supreme Court a year later and a US appeals court rejected President Trump’s attempt to reinstate his ban in 2020.
The Biden administration cancelled all US travel restrictions in 2021 except the one to and from North Korea.
