Trump Administration Travel Ban Comes Into Effect

The travel ban, which has been contested in federal courts across America, comes into effect after the US Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in favour of it.

Across the campaign trail, then candidate Trump touted that he would implement a travel ban against Muslim countries when he took office and within the first 100 days of his presidency. Whilst the original travel ban was stopped in federal court twice, a Supreme Court decision ruled that the travel ban could in fact come into effect.

Under the water downed executive order, any person seeking to enter the United States from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen would be subject to a 90 day ban from entering the country and any person within refugee programs would be subject to a 120 day ban.

However, the ban allows people with a bona fide relationship for entering the United States to continue their travel; these reasons include students entering the US to attend university, those entering to visit family and business related trips. It has however excluded those who are engaged to be married and grandparents.

Civil Rights groups within the United States are already dispatches legal observes to airports within the United States in order to observe what could occur under the travel ban and provide legal assistance to those caught up.

There is still confusion in how the travel ban will be implemented due to the ambiguous nature of the Supreme Court ruling. Whilst those travelling to the United States are required to have a visa before boarding a flight and should be allowed to enter the US with a valid visa, the overly aggressive implementation of the first travel ban and the inconsistent way that it was enforced by the Customs and Boarder Protection Agency, people are becoming worried about the implementation of this new order. There are also fears that the agency isn’t providing sufficient guidance on how to implement this order and that there is still some confusion.

If visas being able to be denied with a near impossible appeal process, those with a bona fide relationship with those inside the United States could be hurt by this order if it isn’t implemented properly and there are still concerns that this could be a more long term policy that would harm the United States reputation as the land of the free across these listed countries and their close neighbours.