The Trump administration is considering implementing travel restrictions for 36 additional countries, including key U.S. partners like Egypt and Djibouti, as reported in an internal memo obtained by the Washington Post. The memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent to U.S. diplomats on Saturday, states that the governments of the listed countries have 60 days to comply with new requirements set by the State Department.
The State Department claims that some of these nations have failed to meet various standards, such as lacking a competent and cooperative central government to issue reliable identity documents or having a significant number of citizens who have violated their visa terms.
However, the memo included a caveat: if a country is willing to accept third-country nationals who are being removed from the U.S., it would ease other concerns. The list of countries, which could face visa restrictions, travel bans, or other restrictions, includes 25 countries in Africa: Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cabo Verde, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Several Caribbean nations are on the list as well: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. Additionally, there are four countries in Asia listed: Bhutan, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, and Syria; and three countries in Oceania: Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu
Those countries have until Wednesday at 8 a.m. to provide the State Department with an initial plan of action to meet the new requirements. It’s unclear if the travel restrictions would take effect after that deadline. Reports about the new internal memo arrive just one week after Trump revived his first-term travel ban and announced a full travel ban on 12 countries and travel restrictions on seven others.
In January, Trump signed an executive order asking the State Department to identify countries “for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension” on nationals from those countries. Those actions are part of the president’s crackdown on immigration, both domestically, by conducting a mass deportation campaign against undocumented immigrants, and internationally, by restricting travel to and from certain countries.
Although Trump’s anti-immigration approach was expected in his second term, the scale and force at which it’s occurred have startled lawmakers and U.S. residents.
Source: www.independent.co.uk