A new travel ban by President Donald Trump could bar people from Afghanistan and Pakistan from entering the US as soon as next week based on a government review of countries’ security and vetting risks, Reuters reported on Thursday citing three sources familiar with the matter.
According the British news agency, the three sources, who requested anonymity, said other countries could also be on the list but did not know which ones.
The move harkens back to the Republican president’s first term ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
The new ban could affect tens of thousands of Afghans who have been cleared for resettlement in the US as refugees or on Special Immigrant Visas because they are at risk of Taliban retribution for working for the US during a 20-year war in their home country.
Trump issued an executive order on January 20 requiring intensified security vetting of any foreigners seeking admission to the US to detect national security threats.
That order directed several cabinet members to submit by March 12 a list of countries from which travel should be partly or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information is so deficient.”
Afghanistan will be included in the recommended list of countries for a complete travel ban, said the three sources and one other who also asked not to be identified.
The three sources said Pakistan also would be recommended for inclusion.
The departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security and the Office of the Director for National Intelligence, whose leaders are overseeing the initiative, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
One source pointed out that Afghans cleared for resettlement in the US as refugees or on the special visas first undergo intense screening that makes them “more highly vetted than any population” in the world.
There are some 200,000 Afghans who have been approved for US resettlement or have pending US refugee and Special Immigrant Visa applications. They have been stranded in Afghanistan and nearly 90 other countries — including about 20,000 in Pakistan — since January 20, when Trump ordered a 90-day freeze on refugee admissions and foreign aid that funds their flights.
