Sensible New Travel Order

            As most people remember, the original executive order was for a 90-day suspension of travel to the United States from seven countries in the Middle East and Africa that were safe havens for terrorists. The purpose of the order was to have time to put the procedures in place to stop any terrorists who tried to enter the United States as a tourist, student, or immigrant. That order was stopped by liberal judges, and the 90 days basically passed.

            While the courts were playing with the original order, the Department of Homeland Security gathered the needed information from foreign governments to determine if their nationals could be allowed to enter the United States without posing problems. Homeland Security applied a “comprehensive set of criteria” to 200 countries for evaluation. When the “practices, policies, and capabilities” were evaluated, Homeland Security determined that 47 countries were deficient. The department then spent 50 days working with the countries to address the problems before President Trump issued a new proclamation.

            Hans von Spakovsky at The Daily Signal reviewed the proclamation and says that “this lawful order represents common sense on national security issues vital to our safety.” He gives the following explanation about the review that took place before the proclamation was made on September 24, 2017.

This review didn’t just involve getting better information from other countries, but also evaluating “the integrity of documents” provided. It seems obvious, for example, that we can’t trust identity and travel documents from a government that is a State Department-designated sponsor of terrorism like Iran.

The end result of this wide-ranging and thorough review is a new list of eight countries, five of which were on the original list. Those five include Iran, Libya, Syria, Yemen, and Somalia.

Iran and Syria are state sponsors of terrorism, and Libya, Yemen, and Somalia are “countries of concern” because of extensive terrorist activities inside the countries. Chad, a country with several active terrorist groups … has been added to the list.

Those who keep falsely asserting that this is just an anti-Muslim crusade will have a hard time explaining why North Korea and Venezuela have been added to the list, neither of which is majority-Muslim.

North Korea is an obvious addition, given the dangerous tyrant who runs the country and the fact that it “fails to satisfy all information-sharing requirements” according to the proclamation.

Venezuela is “uncooperative in verifying” any information. Therefore, the entry of certain government officials from that country is being restricted. Although Iraq is not specifically listed, the proclamation does say that Iraqi nationals will be “subject to additional scrutiny.”

            This writer is grateful for a President who is concerned about keep Americans safe at home and abroad. The new travel order sounds sensible, but no one ever accused liberals of having common sense. It seems that they oppose anything that Trump does, whether or not it is sensible or good for the nation. Only time will tell us if they allow this travel order to do its job!