Citing Sunday’s attack on Jews in Boulder, Colorado, President Donald Trump has announced a ban on entry to the United States for people from 12 countries, most but not all majority Muslim.
The ban is redolent of the travel ban Trump imposed just weeks into his first term in 2017, which ignited turmoil at airports and fierce protests, including from Jewish communities and organizations. The Supreme Court ultimately upheld a version of the ban in 2018.
The new ban is more expansive. It applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump also limited entrance rights for citizens of seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Sunday’s attack — on a group of Jews walking to raise awareness of Israeli hostages being held in Gaza — was allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national who had lived in Kuwait for 14 or 15 years before entering the United States on a tourist visa, then staying after filing an asylum claim. The Trump administration has already sought to deport the wife and children of the man charged in the attack, though a judge has temporarily halted their removal.
Although the ban does not apply to Egyptians, Trump cited the attack as justification for the new ban in a video announcing it on Truth Social Wednesday evening. (Unlike in explanations of other policy moves by his administration, he did not explicitly cite antisemitism as a concern. He also did not note the identity of the Boulder victims.)
“The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, 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,” Trump said in the video. “We don’t want them.”
Jewish Insider reported shortly before Trump posted the video that representatives of Jewish organizations had been told in a meeting that an executive order with a travel ban was forthcoming, and that the Boulder attack had been cited as a rationale. “Everyone was very careful about what they said and didn’t say,” a source who attended the meeting told Jewish Insider.
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