“We have to be safe.”
(President Donald Trump speaking in Davos.)
If you are a news junky, surely you have seen the news today from Davos that Trump may add to the controversial travel ban countries. Reports say that as early as Monday an announcement could be made.
You need to know that refugees from the original banned countries are not banned. There is extra scrutiny for those from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, and Venezuela, but no outright ban.
Here is one of many stories, this one from NPR:
Trump Says He’ll Add ‘A Few Countries’ To Controversial U.S. Travel Ban
President Trump says he’ll widen a controversial travel ban that prohibits nearly all people from seven countries from traveling or immigrating to the U.S., calling it “a very powerful ban” that’s necessary to ensure national security.
“We’re adding a couple of countries” to the ban, Trump said when asked about his policy shift at a news conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He added, “We have to be safe. Our country has to be safe. You see what’s going on in the world. Our country has to be safe.”
The Wall Street Journal first reported on Trump’s plan to expand the ban, citing an interview with the president in Davos. Citing unidentified sources, Politico then reported that the administration could double the scope of the ban by possibly blacklisting seven more countries: Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania.
Trump did not share any more details about the ban’s expansion, saying, “It’s going to be announced very shortly.”
However, Trump did criticize how the legal battles over past travel bans have been portrayed, emphasizing that after some losses in lower courts, the Supreme Court sided with him in 2018.
For readers who want to dig deeper, see the Migration Policy Institute‘s lengthy report on the ups and downs of the original so-called travel ban.
The Travel Ban at Two: Rocky Implementation Settles into Deeper Impacts
You will see that just as we have reported in recent months—refugees are coming in from travel restricted countries including Syria and Somalia.
(MPI is a Leftwing ‘think tank’ in Washington, DC.)
Of the possible new countries to be named, Tanzania is where many of our DR Congolese refugees are housed before being moved to your home towns. Myanmar is home to the strict Islamic Rohingya people we have been resettling, and we take many refugees from Eritrea.
For readers of ‘Frauds and Crooks’ you know Nigeria has not been sending us their “best people.”
The rumored new travel ban is unlikely to ban any refugees, it just might slow their arrival as MPI disclosed.
Nevertheless, expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth from the nine federal refugee resettlement contractors!
This would be the smartest thing any president could do. I just pray that he goes thru with it. Our town gets those from Myanmar. The original refugees from there were persecuted but no more as many of our refugees travel back home to visit family and friends and take their vacations there. So there is no real reason we still need to bring them here except that now some of their friends and family are here and it is free bee heaven. The Rohyinga from Myanmar have been said to be persecuted but they are not friendly to the USA and do not have our values. Pray