President Donald Trump issued a travel ban on 12 countries to go into effect on Monday, and issued travel restrictions on another 7 countries.
The 12 countries affected are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
‘I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.’
“We will restore the travel ban, some people call it the Trump travel ban, and keep the radical Islamic terrorists out of our country that was upheld by the Supreme Court,” the president said in the White House fact sheet.
“I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people,” President Trump said in a proclamation.
The seven countries with heightened restrictions on travelers are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The proclamation offered the administration’s justification for a ban on travel from each of the countries listed.
RELATED: Is Trump’s travel ban constitutional? Immigration law experts from both sides weigh in.
Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
The president previously announced his intention to ban Muslims from traveling into the U.S. ahead of the 2016 election.
“Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what the hell is going on,” he famously said in 2015.
Once he got into office, the ban was more limited in scope but was still assailed by his critics as racist and bigoted against Islam. It was challenged in court and redrafted until a final version was approved by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.
Democrats immediately assailed his new ban on travel.
“From his first Muslim Ban, Trump’s travel bans have always betrayed of the ideals and values that inspired America’s Founders,” said Democrat Rep. Don Beyer of Virginia. “Trump’s use of prejudice and bigotry to bar people from entering the U.S. does not make us safer, it just divides us and weakens our global leadership.”
This is a developing story, and additional information may be added.
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