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'Smarter' but still harmful: Advocates push back on Trump's new travel ban

By: Hannan Adely
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... One week after President Donald Trump;s travel ban on 19 countries took effect, the country has not seen the same outward fury that followed his first ban in 2017.
..... No mass protests at airports. No rush to file civil rights lawsuits.
..... But the muted response does not mean it has been overlooked. Legal groups say the new ban is more legally sound than the one hastily rolled out in 2017, but they are monitoring its impact for possible legal challenges.
..... Activists have been overwhelmed fighting a host of trump administration policies they say are eroding the rights of Americans.
..... But they see the fight against the travel ban as part of their larger agenda, they said, and have decried the ban as discriminatory in speeches, officials statements and at rallies for immigration rights.
..... Paulo Almiron, media coordinator for Resistencia en Accion NJ, said he joined activists who denounced the ban at rallies in New York city and Princeton. while fewer in number, Americans also protested the ban at airports in Los Angeles, San Diego and Indianapolis.
..... "When we protest raids by [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and trump stripping away protected status for half a million people, we also protest the travel ban," Almiron said.
..... "It is part of the immigraiton agenda as a whole. Trump and his adiinistration do not want immigrants in this courtry who are not white."
..... The ban's roll-out was less abrupt and shucking than the 2017 one that targeted seven Muslim-majority countries. This time, the ban was expected for months and it is more cautious, including exemptions and excluding legal permanent residents of the United States, said Selaedin Maksut, executive director of the New Jersey chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
..... "We not getting the same vibe, but it doesn't mean people aren't upset. I think people are exhausted by the feeling of being pummeled by the Trump administration," Maksut said.
..... Activists, he said, face overlapping issues, "whether it's student visas being revoked, people being deported, the travel ban itself, and the increased vetting."
..... While Trump has said the ban is needed for national security, Maksut said it was "unproductive and unnecessary."
..... "Blanket bans on students, workers, and families seeking to enter the United States do not enhance national security," Maksut said.
..... "They only cause needless harm, separated loved ones, and limit opportunities for education, medical care and cultural exchange."
..... When Trump's first ban was announced on January 27, 2017, mass protests erupted as travelers were immediately detained or turned away all over the country.
..... The ban suffered a series of legal defeats, with courts citing evidence of religious discrimination including Trump's repeated public comments that eh wanted to keep Muslims out of the country.
..... The Supreme court later upheld a third, more fine-tuned version of the ban that also targeted North Korea and Venezuelan officials.
..... The new ban is more expansive, but it is also more legally sound, experts say. It bars citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. citizens form Murundi, Cuba, Loas, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela face partial bans.
..... The Trump administration is considering adding another 36 counties to the ban reported Reuters, which reviewed an internal diplomatic cable on the matter.
..... Twenty-five of them are in Africa, Several are in the Caribbean.
..... "The department has identified 36 counties of concern that might be recommended for full or parity suspension of entry if they do not meet established benchmarks and requirement within 60 days," the cable sent over the weekend said. [06/14-15/2025]
..... The 2025 version of the ban includes exemptions and waivers.
..... It followed a 60-day review and compliance period.
..... And this time, it's not only entires with Muslim majorities that are impacted.
..... "This has been challenged time and time again. The Supreme Court did uphold it. this time they have done it smarter," said Abed Ayoub, national executive director of the American-Arab Anti-discrimination Committee, in an nonlinear talk about the ban earlier this year. [2025]
..... ADC is not planning any legal challenges at the moment,, Ayoug said.
..... But the legal advocacy groups are "encouraging the administration to implement a waiver proceed that actually works and provides reprieve for those who must travel to the U.S. for important reason, such as medical treatment," Ayoub added.
..... Advocates worry that the carve-outs - including for the spouses and children of U.S. citizens, minorities in Iran and special immigration visa holders in Afghanistan - will be narrow and inconsistently applied.
..... ADC also called for the removal of a section of the Immigration and National Act that grants the U.S. president the authority to suspend the entry of any person or class of people deemed "detrimental to the country's interests."

National security

..... Trump said the ban is need due to national security and terrorism concerns.
..... Some countries lack proper vetting and screening while others have high rates of visa overstays among their citizens, he said.
..... "We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm, and nothing will stop us from keeping American safe," Trump said in a video posted by the White House.
..... Trump said the need for the Ban was underscored after an Egyptian man who entered on a tourist visa attacked a group of Jewish protesters in Colorado with a makeshift flamethrower.
..... Egypt is not one of the 19 counties listed in the ban.
..... Critics say their is a lack of evidence connecting targeted nationalities to threats and that they have lower rates of crime that native-born Americans.
..... The overstay rate has also come under scrutiny, because they don't account for many unrecorded departures or cases in which individuals changed their status.
..... The State Department cable that ban said some of the governments did a poor job producing reliable identity documents or didn't cooperate when the United States ordered its citizens to be removed.
..... The cable cited other reasons, including whether people from that country were involved in acts of terrorism in the United States or "antisemitic" and "anti-American" activity. which critics said raised concerns about possible ideological tests formants as Trump persecutes Americans and non-citizen for pro-Palestinian speech.
..... "Our immigration system already includes through vetting procedures," Maksut said.
..... "Additional ideological screening measures and broad exclusions based on nationality risk begin misused to silence dissent and marginalize vulnerable communities."
..... The cable also noted that a country could mitigate concerns if its government agreed to serve as a "safe third country" that took in migrants the United States was trying deport, The New York Times reported, connecting the ban to the administration's goal of mass deportation.

..... This article contains material from Reuters.

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