US travel ban expanded, includes 20 more countries
REBECCA SANTANA |
The Trump administration is expanding travel restrictions to an additional 20 countries and the Palestinian Authority, doubling the number of nations affected by sweeping limits on who can travel and emigrate to the US.
The Trump administration included five more countries as well as people travelling on documents issued by the Palestinian Authority to the list of countries facing a full ban on travel to the US and imposed new limits on 15 other countries.
The move is part of ongoing efforts by the administration to tighten US entry standards for travel and immigration from a broad range of countries.
The administration suggested it would expand the restrictions after the arrest of an Afghan national suspect in the shooting of two National Guard troops over Thanksgiving weekend.
People who already have visas, are lawful permanent residents of the US or have certain visa categories such as diplomats or athletes, or whose entry into the country is believed to serve the US interest are exempt from the restrictions.
In June, President Donald Trump announced that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from coming to the US and those from seven others would face restrictions.
At the time the ban included Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The Republican administration announced on Tuesday it was expanding the list of countries whose citizens are banned from entering the US to Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria.
The administration also fully restricted travel on people with Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents, the latest US travel restriction against Palestinians. South Sudan was also facing significant travel restrictions already.
An additional 15 countries are also being added to the list of countries facing partial restrictions: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Ivory Coast, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The restrictions apply to both people seeking to travel to the US as visitors or to emigrate.
The Trump administration said many of the countries from which it was restricting travel had “widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records” that made it difficult to vet their citizens for travel to the US.
It also said some countries had high rates of people overstaying their visas, refused to take back their citizens who the US wished to deport or had a “general lack of stability and government control,” which made vetting difficult. It also cited immigration enforcement, foreign policy and national security concerns for the move.
The new restrictions on Palestinians comes months after the administration imposed limits that make it nearly impossible for anyone holding a Palestinian Authority passport from receiving travel documents to visit the US for business, work, pleasure or educational purposes.
The latest announcement goes further, banning people with Palestinian Authority passports from emigrating to the US.
AP
