US Travel Ban: The Reason Behind The Banning Of 7 Countries

World leaders were shocked when US President Donald Trump agreed to sign the executive order that would ban 7 countries to enter the United States. The 90-day travel ban is now effective and would ban citizens coming from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.

According to CNN, the seven Muslim-majority countries that were included in the executive order were already stated as "countries of concern" before Trump went to office as president. Sean Spicer, who is the White House Press Secretary, stated that the travel ban was based off on the Obama administration's actions.

"There were further travel restrictions already in place from those seven countries," Spicer said. He pointed out that the Trump administration is only pushing through in safe-guarding the country by implementing that executive order.

There was a law before that granted 38 countries to have its citizens enter the US for 90 days without a visa. However, in December 2015 during Obama's period, the congress passed a law that would remove the waiver. It applied to foreign nationals who visited countries that were considered as a "safe haven" for terrorists.

Now, in February 2016, when countries like Libya, Somalia and Yemen were included in the list, President Trump included those seven countries in the executive order. Trump even stated in one of his interviews that his travel ban policy is not far from Obama's policy of banning visas for Iraqi refugees.

Mr. Trump also stated that some of the foreign nationals coming from Islamic countries were the cause of the numerous terrorist attacks. This is the reason why these seven Muslim-majority countries were added to Trump's banned list.

However, research would prove otherwise because according to according to the BBC, most of the terrorist-related attacks that happened since the 9/11 bombing were caused by US-born citizens. The attacks that happened in Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and San Bernardino were caused by citizens born in the US.

It's still an issue that's been going on for weeks whether Trump's 'decisions are a step for progress or failure. However, the banned countries are also considering of banning US citizens to enter into their countries and Iraq already did it.