President Trump is set to BAN migrants from Syria and six other 'dangerous' Muslim countries from entering America by signing executive orders tomorrow.
President Donald Trump is reportedly set to sign several executive orders on Wednesday banning immigrants from predominantly Muslim countries whose citizens may post a terrorist threat.
The new Trump directives will reportedly restrict immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.
The new Trump directives will reportedly restrict immigration from Syria and six other Middle Eastern or African countries, according to several congressional aides and immigration experts briefed on the matter.
In addition to Syria, Trump's orders are expected to temporarily restrict access to the United States for most refugees.
Another order will block visas from being issued to citizens of Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, said the aides and experts, who asked not to be identified.
Trump's restrictions on refugees are likely to include a multi-month ban on admissions from all countries until the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security can increase the intensity of the vetting process.
The Republican president was expected to sign the orders at the Washington headquarters of the Department of Homeland Security, whose responsibilities include immigration and border security.
On the campaign trail, Trump initially proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States to protect Americans from jihadist attacks.
Many Trump supporters decried Democratic President Barack Obama's decision to increase the number of Syrian refugees admitted to the United States over fears that those fleeing the country's civil war would carry out attacks.
Both Trump and his nominee for attorney general, US Senator Jeff Sessions, have since said they would focus the restrictions on countries whose emigres could pose a threat rather than placing a ban on people who follow a specific religion.
To block entry from the designated countries, Trump is likely to instruct the US State Department to stop issuing visas to people from those nations, according to sources familiar with the visa process.
SYRIA
From the outside looking in, Syria appears to be a hornet's nest of terrorist groups and non-state actors.
A number of these organizations have been fighting the forces loyal to President Bashar Assad in a bloody civil war that has cost the lives of an estimated 500,000 people.
They include Islamic State (ISIS), a jihadist group that has also captured swaths of Iraq; Al-Nusra Front, which is also known as Al-Qaeda in Syria; and Jaysh al-Islam, among others, according to Globalo.
Since 1979, the Syrian government has been put on the State Department's list as a state sponsor of terrorism.
It is also known for its support of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah.
IRAQ
Iraq has been unstable ever since the 2003 invasion of the country by US forces.
The overthrow of Saddam Hussein paved the way for Shi'ite-led governments to take over, though they have failed to bring order to the country.
Organizations like Islamic State, made up primarily of Sunni gunmen, have filled the vacuum and prevented an orderly post-Saddam transition from taking hold.
ISIS has launched dozens of terrorist attacks that have killed thousands.
IRAN
Iran has been designated by the State Department as 'the foremost sponsor of terrorism in 2015, providing a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world,' according to CNN.
The US says that Iran has given weapons and cash to organizations like Hezbollah in Lebanon and Iraqi Shi'ite groups, including Kata'ib Hizballah.
Both organizations are designated as terrorist groups by the State Department.
LIBYA
Libya, the North African nation, has been a powder keg in which terrorist organizations have been fighting for control of the country since the NATO-backed ouster of long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The US intelligence community says that jihadist organization have been strengthening their grip on the country, according to The Washington Times.
ISIS has been particularly active there.
'There are, in addition to ISIL, probably six or eight other terrorist groups that have gathered in Libya,' James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, told Congress in 2015.
'So it's a magnet because, essentially, it's ungoverned.'
SOMALIA
Somalia is widely regarded as a failed state.
It was ranked as the most fragile country in the world by the Fund for Peace in 2016.
Without a functioning central government, the East African country has disintegrated further into civil war. Its UN-backed government has been at war with Al-Shabab, a group regarded by both the US and the United Kingdom as a terrorist organization, according to the BBC.Al-Shabab is believed to have between 7,000 and 9,000 gunmen from across the Muslim world. The organization propagates the austere Wahabi version of Islam whose origins lie in Saudi Arabia. Al-Shabab has imposed strict clerical rule in areas that it has captured in Somalia, where it has stoned women to death for the crime of adultery and amputated the hands of thieves.
SUDAN
Sudan was placed on the State Department’s list of terrorism sponsors in 1993.
At the time, it was alleged that the government harbored figures like Osama bin Laden in addition to fighters from al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Abu Nidal Organization, and Jamaat al-Islamiyya.
In the late 1990s, however, Sudan showed willingness to cooperate with the West in fighting terrorism. In May 2004, Sudan was removed from a list of countries that were ‘not fully cooperating’ with American anti-terrorism efforts.
However, the Sudanese government remains on the terror sponsor list due to its support of Hamas, the Palestinian group fighting Israel.
YEMEN
Yemen, one of the most impoverished Arab countries, has been in the grip of a civil war fought between forces loyal to the established government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi and the Houthi rebel movement, according to the BBC.
The Houthis are a Shi’ite political movement that took control of the Yemenite capital in 2014. Since then, regional forces backed by Sunni governments have tried to roll back their progress, while Shi’ite actors like Iran and Hezbollah have given the Houthis support.
Nearly 7,000 people have died and 35,000 have been wounded since the war erupted in March 2015. Most of the casualties have resulted from air strikes launched by the Saudi-led coalition – which has the backing of the US.
The country has been wracked by violence and chaos, with al Qaeda launching attacks and separatist movements having taken control of the southern part of the country.
He could also instruct US Customs and Border Protection to stop any current visa holders from those countries from entering the United States.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer said on Tuesday that the State and Homeland Security departments would work on the vetting process once Trump's nominee to head the State Department, Rex Tillerson, is installed.
Other measures may include directing all agencies to finish work on a biometric identification system for non-citizens entering and exiting the United States and a crackdown on immigrants fraudulently receiving government benefits, according to the congressional aides and immigration experts.
To restrict illegal immigration, Trump has promised to build a wall on the US-Mexico border and to deport illegal migrants living inside the United States.
None of the orders to be signed Wednesday are expected to focus on those issues.
Trump is also expected to swear in his new secretary of homeland security, retired Marine General John Kelly, on Wednesday.
culled from: ABC News
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