President Trump reveals plans to add countries to his existing travel ban, prohibiting more foreign nationals from entering the United States. At the moment, the ban includes seven countries: Libya, North Korea, Iran, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen. Countries from Africa, Asia, and Europe are currently being considered for the ban expansion.

There are no details on how many countries or which ones will be added to the ban, only that “information will be released ‘very shortly’”.Speculated countries to be added are Belarus, Myanmar (A.K.A. Burma), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. The list has been considered for weeks by the presidential administration.

The expansion was revealed right after the three-year anniversary of the original order. The original ban was signed only one week after President Trump’s inauguration; at first, it banned all travelers from the aforementioned countries. Following some changes by federal courts, however, it now only restricts some of the countries’ citizens. The travel ban was upheld by the Supreme Court in June of 2018, debunking claims from lower courts that the ban was unconstitutional.

The ban expansion has been met with criticism; those opposing the expansion say that the order, which is meant to counter terrorism, doesn’t include countries that have committed acts of terrorism against the United States and ignores the fact that the US has a domestic terrorism problem. And even if one were to use that reasoning to justify the overall ban or expansion, some of the theorized countries have a strong alliance with the US (Nigeria, for example).

Information Source: BBC

Featured Image: Flickr

Other Image: Flickr