High court rules to allow U.S. travel ban for Chad, Libya and Somalia

By AT editor - 5 December 2017 at 1:45 am
High court rules to allow U.S. travel ban for Chad, Libya and Somalia

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled late Monday to allow a controversial travel ban affecting citizens of Chad, Libya and Somalia to go into effect.

The 7-2 ruling allows President Donald Trump’s administration to move forward with restrictions that were put on hold in October when lower U.S. courts determined that banning citizens from eight countries, most of them predominantly Muslim, potentially violated discrimination laws.

The version of the ban approved on Monday was introduced in September, and was the latest iteration of a U.S. border protection strategy that Trump has been trying to implement since first taking office nearly a year ago. This new ban added restrictions for people from Chad to the original group, but removed them for citizens of Sudan. It also includes Venezuela, North Korea, Syria, Yemen and Iran.

Changes made in September are based on specific criteria centered in a nation’s ability to effectively manage and share information about citizen identity and national security risk. The U.S. evaluation also considers whether a country is a “known or potential terrorist safe haven” overall, and whether or not a nation cooperates in accepting its citizens when they are removed from the U.S.

The U.S. cut off some travel visas for Eritrea, Guinea and Sierra Leone in September because of these governments’ failure to do so.

Since Trump took office in January 2016, U.S. foreign policy has reflected the more protectionist and security-focused values of the administration that followed former president Barack Obama. The U.S. announced on Sunday it will end participation in the United Nations process to develop a Global Compact on Migration (GCM), and has previously said it was stepping away from Paris Agreement climate obligations as well as UNESCO.

For details about the new U.S. policy, see this link.

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