New Trump travel ban adds North Korea, Venezuela
After the existing immigration ban imposed by the Trump Administration expired on Sunday, new restrictions were announced impacting nationals of more countries.
A new ban on travel to the US now includes citizens of North Korea, Venezuela and Chad.
They are added to the countries listed in earlier versions of Trump’s travel ban Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen.
Just one country, Sudan, has been removed from the latest blacklist.
"North Korea does not cooperate with the United States government in any respect and fails to satisfy all information-sharing requirements," Trump said.
"As president, I must act to protect the security and interests of the United States and its people."
"Making America safe is my number one priority. We will not admit those into our country we cannot safely vet," Mr Trump later tweeted.
The Trump Administration will likely feel it has a stronger legal argument to fight accusations it is primarily a Muslim ban with the inclusion of North Korea and Venezuela, which are both ideological opponents of US policy.
The American Civil Liberties Union disagreed, saying that adding these two nations ‘doesn’t obfuscate the real fact that the administration’s order is still a Muslim ban.’
Not all countries are classed as equal either, with different restrictions applied to nationals of certain countries.
For example the Venezuela ban only applies to senior government officials and their immediate families, whereas there is a blanket ban for all nationals of countries like Syria.
White House officials said all current valid visas would be honoured and waivers may be possible on a case-by-case basis.
"Just because the original ban was especially outrageous does not mean we should stand for yet another version of government-sanctioned discrimination," Amnesty International USA said in a statement.
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