Washington: President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning travel to the United States for citizens of a dozen countries and put partial restrictions on citizens of seven other nations.
The executive order fully restricts and limits the entry of nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Citizens of seven countries will have their entry partially restricted. The countries are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Donald Trump said he had signed the travel ban because of an attack on a Jewish protest in Colorado that authorities blamed on a man they say was in the country illegally. "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," Trump said in a video message.
The White House justified the restrictions, citing Afghanistan’s Taliban control, Iran and Cuba’s state-sponsored terrorism, and Haiti’s influx of illegal migrants during the Biden administration. Countries like Chad and Eritrea were flagged for disregarding US immigration laws.
"We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen. That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others,” Trump added.
This is not the first time that Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning citizens of certain countries from entering the United States. During his first term in office from 2017, the Republican leader announced a ban on travellers from seven majority-Muslim nations. That policy went through several iterations before it was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2018.
Visas banned for new foreign students at HarvardPresident Donald Trump has announced a ban on visas for foreign students who are set to begin attending Harvard University. The decision was reportedly announced this week, ramping up his administration's crackdown on higher education. "I have determined that it is necessary to restrict the entry of foreign nationals who seek to enter the United States solely or principally to participate in a course of study at Harvard University or in an exchange visitor program hosted by Harvard University," Trump was quoted by news agencies as saying. Trump declared that it would jeopardize national security to allow Harvard to continue hosting foreign students on its campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “I have determined that the entry of the class of foreign nationals described above is detrimental to the interests of the United States because, in my judgment, Harvard's conduct has rendered it an unsuitable destination for foreign students and researchers,” Trump wrote in the order, as per the Associated Press. |
