How Trump’s Travel Ban Impacts Women Activists in the Middle East
At the end of his first week in office, on January 27th, U.S. President Trump signed an executive order temporarily banning citizens from seven countries, including immigrants and refugees, from entering the U.S. Almost immediately, protests erupted at airports and in cities across the country, and outrage was heard from countries around the world. For the people from the seven countries targeted, there were mostly questions and rising fears. A federal appeals court panel maintained a freeze on Trump’s executive order, meaning previously banned individuals should be allowed to enter the U.S.
On Monday, March 6th, however, Trump and his administration carried through on promises to unveil an updated order by signing a new executive order to implement a revised version of the travel ban, with a few critical differences from the first. Most notably, the new order targets six Muslim-majority countries, removing Iraq from the ban, exempts current visa holders, and drops the indefinite ban on Syrian refugees—reducing instead to 120 days.
On March 15th, hours before this executive order was due to begin, Federal judges in Hawaii and Maryland blocked the travel ban from taking effect. Yet questions and uncertainty about the ban remain.
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