President
Donald Trump has issued a new open-ended travel ban that saw North
Korea, Venezuela and Chad among a list of eight countries cited for poor
security and lack of co-operation with US authorities.
The new
restrictions replace an expiring 90-day measure that had locked Trump in
political and legal battles since he took office in January over what
critics alleged was an effort to block Muslims from the country.
But the White House stressed that the measure was to protect the United States from terror attacks.
“We
are taking action today to protect the safety and security of the
American people by establishing a minimum security baseline for entry
into the United States,” Trump said in a statement. “We cannot afford to
continue the failed policies of the past, which present an unacceptable
danger to our country.”
“My highest obligation is to ensure the
safety and security of the American people, and in issuing this new
travel order, I am fulfilling that sacred obligation,” he added.
Sudan, one of the six majority-Muslim countries on the original travel ban, was removed from the list.
The
US has recently praised Sudan’s efforts in fighting terrorism ahead of a
decision expected in October on whether to lift decades-old sanctions
on Khartoum.
Full bans were newly placed on nationals from North
Korea and Chad, and extended for five countries on the original list:
Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
Limited restrictions
meanwhile were placed on Venezuela, for officials from government
agencies including interior and foreign ministries, the main police and
intelligence services, and other agencies.
Trump’s order said Caracas was not co-operating on security issues.
Officials
speaking on background stressed that the decision was taken after an
extensive review of high-risk countries by the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), which were all given the opportunity to improve their
security standards.
The DHS report also said that Iraq did not meet its baseline security requirements.
But
because Baghdad is a close ally and supports the presence of large
numbers of US troops and civilians, officials said, the White House
opted not to place Iraq on the list.
However, US-bound travellers there will face much tougher vetting.
“If
you can’t screen people effectively to know who’s coming into your
country, then you shouldn’t allow people from that country to travel,”
said White House National Security Adviser HR McMaster.
Trump
administration officials stressed that the restrictions are
“conditions-based, not time-based”, indicating that significant
improvements by countries could see them delisted from the travel ban.
The
officials also pointed out that the addition of North Korea and
Venezuela demonstrated that the measure was based on security standards
and was not a “Muslim ban”, as detractors have argued.
That
accusation was accepted by federal appeals courts in lawsuits that
blocked the first efforts by Trump to set the ban, in January and March.
The
ban, which also included a broader, 120-day ban on refugees that
expires next month, will be argued in the Supreme Court on October 10.
“Religion,
or the religious origin of individuals or nations, was not a factor,” a
senior government official told reporters. “The inclusion of those
countries, Venezuela and North Korea, was about the fact that those
governments are simply not compliant with our basic security
requirements.”
But Becca Heller, director of the International
Refugee Assistance Project, said that of the three countries added,
“Chad is majority Muslim, travel from North Korea is already basically
frozen, and the restrictions on Venezuela only affect government
officials on certain visas. You can’t get any more transparent than
that.”
On the decision to remove Sudan, Heller said: “Last week, the
government ended Temporary Protected Status for Sudan, suggesting that
the government of Sudan was pressured into agreeing to accept massive
numbers of deported Sudanese nationals from the US in exchange for being
dropped from the travel ban.”
“President Trump’s original sin of
targeting Muslims cannot be cured by throwing other countries onto his
enemies list,” added Anthony Romero of the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU).
North Korea, locked in a dangerous face-off with
Washington over its nuclear weapons programme, was added, the order
said, because Pyongyang “does not co-operate with the United States
government in any respect”.
Chad was added to the list even though Trump’s order called it “an important and valuable counterterrorism partner”.
It
pointed to the presence in the northern African country of designated
terror groups like the so-called Islamic State, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram,
and said the government does not adequately share security and
terrorism-related information.
The bans for the five countries from
the previous 90-day order, which expired on Sunday, would immediately
continue under the new order.
For North Korea, Chad, and Venezuela, the restrictions will be implemented, starting on October 18.
President Donald Trump