Rights groups warn Trump executive order would restore Muslim ‘travel ban’

(Reuters)

WASHINGTON, Jan 22 – U.S. civil rights groups are warning that an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Monday lays the groundwork for reinstatement of a ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) said the new order relied on the same statutory authority used to justify Trump’s 2017 travel ban and offered even “wider latitude to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals” who had already entered the country. It unveiled a new 24-hour hotline (844-232-9955) to help those affected.

The National Iranian-Americans Council (NIAC) said Trump’s order on “Protecting the United States from Foreign Terrorists and other National Security and Public Safety Threats” would separate U.S. families from loved ones and lower enrollment at U.S. universities. It set up a new website on the issue: https://www.niacouncil.org/travelban/, opens new tab.

Trump’s new order, opens new tab, signed on Monday amid a flurry of other measures, sets a 60-day window for top State, Justice, intelligence and homeland security officials to identify countries whose vetting and screening processes are “so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”

It goes beyond Trump’s 2017 ban on travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries, adding language that deny people visas or entry to the U.S. if they “bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles,” and sets up a process that could lead to removal of those granted visas since January 2021.