President Trump has signed an executive order — Executive Order 14161 — blocking travel completely or in part to the US from 19 countries identified as either very high risk or high risk for terrorism, visa abuse, and failure to share security information.
In a televised address, the President cited the recent attack in Boulder, Colorado, by an Egyptian national who had over-stayed his visa while visiting the United States. Trump said:
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. We don’t want them.
Faced with a full suspension of travel due to inadequate screening and vetting and therefore considered a “very high risk” to the US are citizens of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The ban will take effect on Monday, June 9, after which citizens of those countries will not be allowed to enter the United States
Partially restricted due to “high risk” are citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Citizens of those countries cannot come to the United States permanently or get tourist or student visas.
The order explains the rationale for banning travel from each of the countries indicated. For example, here is the explanation for the travel ban on Afghanistan:
The Taliban, a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) group, controls
Afghanistan. Afghanistan lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for
issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening
and vetting measures. According to the Fiscal Year 2023 Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) Entry/Exit Overstay Report (“Overstay Report”), Afghanistan had
a business/tourist (B1/B2) visa overstay rate of 9.70 percent and a student (F),
vocational (M), and exchange visitor (J) visa overstay rate of 29.30 percent.
One naturally expects a flood of lawsuits ensuing from such an order, and that will no doubt occur. The New York Times, however, is saying this morning that
the immediate reaction was muted. Some leading rights groups condemned the move on social media, but few governments had a quick and decisive response to share.
We’ll see.
For more, see Fox News.