The explanations provided by the Trump administration for why each country is on the list contain significant contradictions, suggesting political calculations played a significant role.
US President Donald Trump’s travel ban could negatively affect “people-to-people ties, educational exchange, commercial engagement, and the broader diplomatic relations that have been carefully nurtured over decades,” the African Union (AU) said on Thursday, June 5.
Seven of the 12 countries whose citizens are banned from entering the US from June 9 onwards are African. Trump announced the ban through a proclamation on Wednesday.
Referring to the attack on an Israel solidarity march in Boulder, Colorado on June 1, Trump said that the incident “has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas.”
Inconsistent logic
While the suspect in the attack was Egyptian, Egypt is not included in the ban. Instead, the African countries of Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan face the travel ban, alongside Haiti, Afghanistan, Myanmar, Iran, and Yemen.
“We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm,” Trump added in his video statement, casting ill-intention on entire peoples to demonize them.
In addition, his proclamation also imposes travel restrictions on seven others, including the African countries of Burundi, Sierra Leone, and Togo, alongside Cuba, Laos, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
The proclamation provides reasons for the ban or restrictions on each country. However, there is no consistent logic visible in its reasoning.
While high visa overstay rates are cited for the travel ban on Chad, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo-Brazzaville, the New York Times reported that the total number of people from these countries overstaying in the US is much smaller compared to others like Nigeria and Ghana, not included in the list. Jamaica alone accounts for more than twice as many overstays as all seven banned African countries combined, although Jamaica is not listed.
Libyan irony
Destroyed by the US-led NATO war in 2011, Libya has “no competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents,” Trump’s proclamation states. “The historical terrorist presence within Libya’s territory amplifies the risks posed by the entry into the United States,” he added, without any reference to the fact that it was the US that spawned these terror groups through its war on the country.
Somalia also faces a ban on the grounds of the high presence of terror groups, while West African countries that are also suffering from their presence do not figure in the list. Entries are banned from Iran and restricted from Cuba because the US unilaterally labels them as state sponsors of terrorism, but US ally Saudi Arabia finds no mention in either of the lists.
Shortly after inviting white settlers, with a monopoly over land in South Africa, as refugees to the US, citing the debunked ‘white Genocide’ claims, Trump imposed a travel ban on Sudan, which is suffering the world’s worst humanitarian crisis with the largest displaced population due to the civil war.
Response from Africa
“Somalia values its longstanding relationship with the United States and stands ready to engage in dialogue to address the concerns raised,” said its ambassador to the US Hassan Abdi.
Mahamat Déby, the president of Chad struggling to keep afloat a wave of popular sentiment against French neo-colonialism, chose to assert “its dignity and pride” and retaliate by halting visas to US citizens.
“While recognizing the sovereign right of all nations to protect their borders and ensure the security of their citizens,” the AU’s statement called on the US “to exercise this right in a manner that is balanced, evidence-based, and reflective of the long-standing partnership between the United States and Africa.”
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Families separated
“My heart is heavy for the families who have patiently waited many years or even decades under the backlogged family reunification processes of our laws, only to now be told that their loved ones abroad are” not only “barred from joining them in the United States,” but even from “obtaining a visitor visa,” lamented Matthew Soerens, Vice President of Advocacy and Policy at Christian humanitarian organization World Relief.
Its president Myal Greene described the ban as “the latest assault on legal immigration processes”. In Trump’s reckoning, legal immigration can pose an even greater problem to his administration than undocumented entry. “Lawful permanent residents are more difficult to remove than nonimmigrants,” his proclamation explains.
