Travel ban 3.0 comes into force on Wednesday, adding Chad, North Korea and Venezuela
Update: hours before coming into effect, a court in Hawaii has issued a temporary suspension of the latest travel ban. The Justice Department labelled the decision “dangerously flawed” and will launch an appeal.
President Trump’s latest travel ban will come into effect today.
Unlike its predecessor, today’s ban will be indefinite. The newest edition adds Chad, North Korea and Venezuela to the existing list of countries with travel restrictions to the US, while Sudan has been dropped from the ban.
The additions of North Korea and Venezuela are critical to the survival of the latest motion, which will undoubtedly face legal challenges. Previous lawsuits successfully argued that the initial travel ban was discriminatory against Muslim-majority countries and was therefore unconstitutional.
North Korea already has restricted travel conditions to the US, and Venezuela’s ban only targets certain government officials. As such, their additions are likely a ploy to assuage arguments of Islamophobia.
While the inclusion of the two countries will complicate legal challenges, Trump’s own anti-Muslim rhetoric could pose the greatest danger to today’s ban. Lawsuits will likely refer to Trump’s past derogatory comments about Muslims to argue that the ban remains discriminatory, despite its hollow inclusion of North Korea and Venezuela.
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