Donald Trump’s latest version of the controversial travel ban, forbidding citizens of seven countries from travelling to the United States citing national security reasons, is being challenged in court. Human rights organisations announced on Friday that they are suing the Trump administration over the ban. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), along with other rights organizations, have submitted a letter to the US District Court in Maryland seeking to amend an existing lawsuit they already filed.
Under the latest ban unveiled by the White House on Sunday, citizens of Yemen, Syria, Libya, Iran, Somalia, North Korea and Chad are all banned from entering the US. For the last three months, the administration used an executive order to ban citizens from six Muslim countries with some exceptions. But after October 18, the new restrictions will begin. And unlike the previous ban, which limited travel for 90 days, the new restrictions are indefinite and “conditioned based, not timed based.”
Will the new ban make Americans safer? According to all publicly available information, the answer is a resounding no. National security and safety is a convincing and easy excuse for imposing the ban, but security experts and those in the know are convinced that it’s an excuse meant to fool the public. The US visa system all over the world is already efficient enough to weed out suspicious applicants and there are systems in place, with the huge security and intelligence network at Washington’s disposal, to vet the applicants effectively. As ACLU Director Anthony Romero put it, the new ban “is still a Muslim ban at its core, and it certainly engages in discrimination based on national origin, which is unlawful”. Trump is fulfilling his election promise of implementing ‘a total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entering the United States, a provocative action which is against the constitution of this great country and the great values it has been promoting all over the world.
It’s also interesting to note that opposition to the ban from ordinary Americans has diminished compared to the fury and protests that accompanied the first ban. Trump is determined to push his agenda and such determination is difficult to be defeated. All hopes are now on the ACLU lawsuit. The courts must overturn the ban as it discriminates against millions of Muslims who are law-abiding citizens of their respective countries, and also because the ban is against the principles of justice and equality enshrined in the American constitution. This is a political ban that will only help exacerbate the current divisions and hatred in the world and will hugely satisfy the xenophobes who support Trump, goading them to spread more hatred and Islamophobia.
