Trump is planning to sign executive orders blocking visas for citizens of seven countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, according to congressional aides and immigration experts.
He is also expected to temporarily ban refugees entering the US for several months, except in cases of religious minorities escaping persecution, until stricter vetting is in place, the sources told Reuters.
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The move could just be the beginning of further limits some reports have indicated.
AntiMedia reports:
The ban will exclude all people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen from visiting the United States. It is also to include a total ban on refugees entering the United States from anywhere, with some exceptions for religious minorities.
Trump campaigned on the idea of banning all Muslims from entering the United States, and while he’s said to have moderated on that position since then, this appears to be at least the start of a policy in that vein. At the same time, the ban list has some conspicuous absences.
Despite presenting such moves as a national security measure intended to prevent terror, the nations from which 9/11 plotters originated (primarily Saudi Arabia, but also including Egypt and the UAE) were left off the new ban. Also, while the US may fear blowback from wars in Iraq and Syria, and constant drone strikes in Yemen, they did not include Afghanistan, 15 years into America’s occupation, nor Pakistan, which has borne the brunt of America’s drone war.
It is thus very difficult to figure exactly how they came by this list, with nations like Iran seemingly just included for political value, and the other countries on the list just sounding scary.
The National Iranian American Council, a Washington-based non-profit organization, say “Donald Trump is making good on the most shameful and discriminatory promises he made on the campaign trail, and that “a blanket ban based on national origin does nothing” to make America safe from terror.
Trump also announced he will start building the Mexico border wall.
Big day planned on NATIONAL SECURITY tomorrow. Among many other things, we will build the wall!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2017
Niamh Harris