Trump bans citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, nine others from US

Citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, and nine other have been banned from entering the United States. Other countries affected by the  travel ban include  the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Restricted access was also slammed on  citizens of seven other nations.

The policy change restricts entry for citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and do not hold a valid visa.

President Donald Trump placed the  ban citing national security concerns,  

Since returning to the White House, Trump has launched an unprecedented campaign of immigration enforcement that has pushed the limits of executive power and clashed with federal judges trying to restrain him.

The travel ban results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S.

The aim is to “protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” the administration said.

In a video released on social media, Trump tied the new ban to a terror attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a tourist visa.

Trump said nationals of countries included in the ban pose “terrorism-related” and “public-safety” risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas. He also said some of these countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their own citizens.

His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of visa overstays of tourists, business visitors and students who arrive by air and sea, singling out countries with high percentages of remaining after their visas expired.

 “We don’t want them,” Trump said.

The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, generally people who worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade war there.

The list can be changed, the administration said in a document circulated Wednesday evening, if authorities of designated countries make “material improvements” to their own rules and procedures. New countries can be added “as threats emerge around the world.”