Travel ban 2.0

It was probably only going to be a matter of time until US President Donald Trump retread ground covered during his first stint in power and passed another travel ban. On Wednesday, this probability became a reality, with Trump signing a new travel ban targeting 12 countries. The move bans all travel to the United States by nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travellers from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, but some temporary work visas from these countries will be allowed. This new travel ban is somewhat different from the ban Trump implemented during his first stint in power, which was often dubbed the ‘Muslim ban’ since it focused almost exclusively on Muslim countries and Trump’s promise to stop all Muslims from entering the US during his election campaign. Although Trump did claim during his second campaign last year that the ‘Muslim ban’ from his first term would be back, he appears to have somewhat toned down the anti-Muslim rhetoric that was a hallmark of his initial rise to power.

Sadly, this has not made many Muslims safer from arbitrary punitive actions at the hands of the Trump administration. Many of the same countries that suffered under the previous ‘Muslim ban’ are being targeted once again, such as Iran, Libya and Yemen. The pretext for this latest ban was an alleged attack carried out by an Egyptian immigrant on a group of people who had gathered on Sunday (June 1) in support of Israeli hostages. Allegations of supporting terrorism have been used as a cudgel to target many foreign students for deportation since Trump returned to power, and most of those being targeted are from Muslim countries. Meanwhile, Trump’s broader efforts against immigration have only expanded in scope and increased in intensity. His administration has deported tens of thousands of migrants and detained almost ten times as many, often without due process and via false allegations of criminality, stripped hundreds of thousands of migrants of legal protections and suspended student visa interviews. In this context, the US’s pro-Zionist bias and a general antipathy to immigrants appear to be the driving forces behind this new travel ban.

However, shifting justifications do nothing to change the upshot of this ban, which is the same as the last one. Innocent people from all over the world will be punished merely for the crime of wanting to pursue a better life. The only thing different when it comes to outcomes is that the net of Trump’s anti-immigration efforts has been widened and even more people will be hurt. What makes this all even more tragic is that immigrants to the US are often exemplary residents and go on to be great citizens too. By almost every measure, immigrants contribute more to the US economy, perform better in education and commit fewer crimes than native-born Americans. Given these facts, the Trump administration’s targeting and scapegoating of immigrants can only be put down to xenophobia. Despite the severe damage this approach will do to the immigrants in the US and those seeking to move there, the ultimate loser will likely still be the US and its citizens, who have disproportionately benefited from its historically open stance to immigration.