On Sept. 24th, one of President Trump’s first executive orders, the travel ban, expired. The ban had prevented all nationals from Muslim-majority nations such as Mali, Syria, and Libya, as well as North Korea and Egypt, from entering the United States with any visa. This ban caused a great amount of unrest throughout the country, and has resulted in many marches and protests throughout the previous months. The concept of a travel ban came about during President Trump’s campaign, in which he announced that he wanted to prevent all foreign Muslims for entering the country, as Trump has stated that he believes that they pose a terrorist threat towards the United States. The temporary ban was meant to be the Trump administration’s first step towards achieving this goal, and what comes after it will soon be in action.

Now that the ban has expired, the Trump administration is hoping to develop a new travel ban that permanently bars citizens from eleven countries that possess a Muslim-majority population. An initial submission of the new executive order was meant to be put into action on October 18th, however it was ruled unconstitutional by multiple district courts, and was never implemented.

The Trump administration plans to revise this mandate, limiting the ban to only six countries. This ban is the central policy of President Trump’s “extreme vetting” plan, as he believes it will protect the US against transnational crime and terrorism. The ban would strictly apply to members of the six selected countries; people with green cards and visas will not face deportation, however after current visas expire, they cannot be renewed. Whether the permanence of the new ban will reignite the many protests that occurred after the temporary band is unknown.

Some PHS students have ideas regarding how the Trump administration should go about reforming the immigration process, considering the shrouded state of the administration’s current plan. For example Dominic Hoffman, a junior in the Humanities program, commented that “Trump should restrict all immigration, not including diplomats and green card holders until the system can be fixed.” This would not be a permanent ban of course, as he elaborated by establishing, “I am unaware of the President’s exact plan but if his goal is to fix the system, all resources should go towards that project, as opposed to a broken system. After the policy is implemented, the program should be resumed.”  

This is one of many possibilities that the Trump administration could push forward. The policy should be released to the public and implemented soon thereafter in the coming weeks. Once more, the reaction to the new ban will be unknown, both on the district court level and on a public level.