WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Trump on Sunday slapped new travel restrictions on citizens from North Korea, Venezuela and Chad, expanding to eight the list of countries covered by his original travel bans that have been challenged in court.
Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Somalia were left on the list of affected countries in a new proclamation issued by the President. Restrictions on citizens from Sudan were lifted.
The measures help fulfill a campaign promise then candidate Trump made to tighten U.S. immigration procedures and align with his “America First” foreign policy vision. Unlike the President’s original ban, which had time limits, this one is open-ended.
“Making America Safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet,” the President said in a tweet shortly after the proclamation was released.
Iraqi citizens will not be subject to travel prohibitions but will face enhanced scrutiny or vetting.
Arrivals checking in at the Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia on 24 September 2017. Credit: James Lawler Duggan/Reuters
The current ban, enacted in March expired on Sunday evening. The new restrictions are slated to take effect on Oct. 18. The addition of North Korea and Venezuela broadens the restrictions from the original, mostly Muslim-majority list.
An administration official, briefing reporters on a conference call, acknowledged that the number of North Koreans now traveling to the United States was very low.
The White House pointed to the restrictions as consequences for countries that did not meet new requirements for vetting of immigrants and issuing of visas. Those requirements were shared in July with foreign governments, which had 50 days to make improvements if needed, the White House said.
A number of countries made improvements by enhancing the security of travel documents or the reporting of passports that were lost or stolen. Others did not, sparking the restrictions.
NORTH KOREA, VENEZUELA ADDED
Arrivals waiting for transportation at the Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, U.S. Credit: James Lawler Duggan/Reuters
Trump has threatened to “destroy” North Korea if it attacks the United States or its allies. Pyongyang earlier this month conducted its most powerful nuclear bomb test. The president has also directed harsh criticism at Venezuela, once hinting at a potential military option to deal with Caracas.
But the officials described the addition of the two countries to Trump’s travel restrictions as the result of a purely objective review.
In the case of North Korea, where the suspension was sweeping and applied to both immigrants and non-immigrants, officials said it was hard for the United States to validate the identity of someone coming from North Korea or to find out if that person was a threat.
“North Korea, quite bluntly, does not cooperate whatsoever,” one official said.
The restrictions on Venezuela focused on Socialist government officials that the Trump administration blamed for the country’s slide into economic disarray, including officials from the Bolivarian National Intelligence Service and their immediate families.
Trump received a set of policy recommendations on Friday from acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke and was briefed on the matter by other administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, a White House aide said.
A Security Officer walking around monitoring the situation at Dulles International in Dulles, Virginia, Sunday 24 September 2017. Credit: James Lawler/Reuters
The rollout on Sunday was decidedly more organized than Trump’s first stab at a travel ban, which was unveiled with little warning and sparked protests at airports worldwide.
Earlier on Sunday, Trump told reporters about the ban: “The tougher, the better.”
Rather than a total ban on entry to the United States, the proposed restrictions differ by nation, based on cooperation with American security mandates, the threat the United States believes each country presents and other variables, officials said.
Somalis, for example, are barred from entering the United States as immigrants and subjected to greater screening for visits.
After the Sept. 15 bombing attack on a London train, Trump wrote on Twitter that the new ban “should be far larger, tougher and more specific – but stupidly, that would not be politically correct.”
The expiring ban blocked entry into the United States by people from the six countries for 90 days and locked out most aspiring refugees for 120 days to give Trump’s administration time to conduct a worldwide review of U.S. vetting procedures for foreign visitors.
