President Trump’s Travel Ban has been temporarily stopped for the time being. Judge Derrick K. Watson, a Hawaiian judge, created a ruling to stop the third travel ban from taking effect. Martin Lawler stated that the travel ban began in January of 2016, and since then has been reformatted and adjusted with more litigation preventing entry into the country based on nationality.

Trump’s travel ban was initialized under the intention of deterring terrorists and criminals from entering the country, but its wide generalization of preventing people from entering the United States of America based on their nationality has garnered criticism because it is thought to be discriminatory.

The original travel ban held an immediate ninety-day suspension of 7 countries that were decided to be a high threat for terrorism. Those countries were all predominantly Muslim.

The second version of the travel ban was less generic but still came off as discriminatory and was blocked by Judge Derrick K. Watson of the Federal District Court of Honolulu, Hawaii.

Now on its third revision the travel ban has removed some countries from the list, and added new countries that aren’t considered Muslim countries. North Korea, Venezuela, and Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Chad, and Somalia are all on the third version of the travel ban. The third version of the legislation also removed the 90-day period that the ban’s predecessors included. This is significant because this means that he intends to block countries from entering the United States indefinitely based on the administration’s measurement of risk.

Judge Derrick Watson’s order will temporarily stop this bill from going into effect, stating that the ban “suffers from precisely the same maladies as its predecessor,” and that it “plainly discriminates based on nationality.” In opposition to that statement the white house released a statement saying that his action “undercuts the President’s efforts to keep the American people safe and enforce minimum security standards for entry into the United States.”

 

 

What are the new proposed restrictions?

The new restrictions affect the following countries: North Korea, Syria, Chad, Yemen, Libya, Somalia, Iran, and Venezuela.

  • North Korean and Syrian citizens are suspended from immigration to the United States for the foreseeable future.
  • Citizens of Chad, Libya, and Yemen have been suspended from immigration as well as for some nonimmigrant business and tourist visas.
  • Sudan has been removed from the travel ban list of countries.
  • Iran remains on the list for immigration suspension with the exception of valid student and exchange visitor visas, although any citizen will be subject to “extreme vetting.”
  • Somalia remains on the banned list for new immigration and nonimmigrant visa holders will be subject to enhanced screening and vetting requirements.
  • Venezuela has been added to the travel ban list but most Venezuelans will be unaffected by the ban. The travel restrictions only affect certain Venezuelan government officials and their family members.

 

 

Conclusion

If you are a foreign national who has been affected by the travel ban or think you may be eligible for a special circumstance it is wise to do so with the help of quality legal counsel. Contact Lawler & Lawler’s Martin Lawler today.