United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that he intends to expand his controversial travel ban on some countries. The travel ban would bar people from certain countries from entering the United States.
“We’re adding a couple of countries to it. We have to be safe,” Mr. Trump told reporters in Davos, Switzerland. “You see what’s going on in the world. Our country has to be safe.”
The U.S. President, however, did not announce the number or identity of the countries that will have to face the brunt of the ban. He said that the details would be announced very soon.
According to Reuters, a source familiar with the draft proposal has revealed that the tentative includes Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. It is expected that the travel ban could dampen relations between the United States and the countries affected by the ban.
The ban expansion would likely hit Nigeria, the largest African country by population, the hardest of any of the countries under consideration. Back in 2018, Nigerians were granted almost 14,000 U.S. green cards and 222,000 temporary visas.
The ban will not likely be a blanket one for all the listed countries but will be on specific types of visas, such as business or visitor visas.
A senior administration official said that countries that failed to comply with security requirements, including biometrics, information-sharing and counter-terrorism measures, faced the risk of limitations on U.S. immigration.
According to some media reports, the list is still being debated but the final announcement could be made next week.
The travel ban expansion is in-line with the anti-immigrant policies that have marked President Trump’s time in office. In September 2017, President Trump issued a travel ban that prohibited the citizens of Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen from obtaining a large range of U.S. immigrant and non-immigrant visas.
