Donald Trump puts ban on the visas for citizens of 7 Muslim countries
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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump took a first step toward fulfilling his pledge to "build a wall" on the Mexican border on Wednesday, signing two immigration-related decrees.
Trump visited the Department of Homeland Security to sign an order to begin work to build a large physical barrier on the southern border and impose a temporary ban on visas for citizens of seven Muslim countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, a move which some reports indicate could just be the beginning of further limits.
According to officials who have been briefed on the matter, the executive order, the ban will exclude all people from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen from visiting the United States. It is also to include a total ban on Muslim refugees entering the United States from anywhere, with some exceptions for religious minorities.
Trump campaigned on the idea of banning all Muslims from entering the United States, and while he’s said to have moderated on that position since then, this appears to be at least the start of a policy in that vein. At the same time, the ban list has some conspicuous absences.
Despite presenting such moves as a national security measure intended to prevent terror, the nations from which 9/11 plotters originated (primarily Saudi Arabia, but also including Egypt and the UAE) were left off the new ban. Also, while the US may fear blowback from wars in Iraq and Syria, and constant drone strikes in Yemen, they did not include Afghanistan, 15 years into America’s occupation, nor Pakistan, which has borne the brunt of America’s drone war.
It is thus very difficult to figure exactly how they came by this list, with nations like Iran seemingly just included for political value, and the other countries on the list just sounding scary.
Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to work closely with Donald Trump after the new US president invited him to Washington, looking to ensure an upturn in ties survives a change at the White House.
After their first phone call since Trump’s inauguration, the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies both indicated they had had a warm conversation and extended mutual invitations to their respective capitals.
But while both leaders share similar backgrounds as establishment outsiders, analysts say their two governments could clash on issues such as trade and visas for Indians wanting to work in the United States.
Statements issued after Tuesday night's phone call indicated both men are keen to build on the recent improvement in ties that began under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama.
Writing on Twitter, Modi said he "had a warm conversation" with the new US president and they had "agreed to work closely in the coming days to further strengthen our bilateral ties". "Have also invited President Trump to visit India," Modi added after the White House revealed Washington had extended a similar invitation
