In a move that will impact African nations the most, U.S. officials have announced an expansion of the Trump administration’s Muslim ban. “The Homeland Security and State departments announced the administration is now including Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania,” the Los Angeles Times reported. “More than 80% of the those potentially impacted by the new ban are from the latter four African countries, according to America’s Voice, an organization advocating for immigration reform.”
“The ban should be ended, not expanded,” Omar Jadwat of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project said in a statement. “President Trump is doubling down on his signature anti-Muslim policy—and using the ban as a way to put even more of his prejudices into practice by excluding more communities of color. Families, universities, and businesses in the United States are paying an ever-higher price for President Trump’s ignorance and racism.”
The expansion comes in the same week that the initial Muslim ban turned three years old. The Los Angeles Times reports that administration officials claimed this expansion “would not necessarily block all citizens of those nations from entering the United States,” but what the administration says and then does are often two different things. It’s also noteworthy that the administration decided to take this step and expand this discriminatory policy during an election year.
Following reports that the administration intended to expand the ban, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that the chamber would take up legislation introduced last year that would reverse the ban—and block similar actions in the future. “House Democrats continue to stand opposed to President Trump’s cruel, un-American travel ban in all of its iterations,” she said. “In the coming weeks, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up and bring to the Floor the NO BAN Act to prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the President’s ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions.”
Nneka Achapu of UndocuBlack Network called the expansion “devastating” in a statement sent to Daily Kos. “Nigerians in the US have strong, deep ties here and abroad, we can not stand for this. I can’t imagine the damage that could be caused by this; it would continue to separate thousands of families by putting their lives on hold. The implications of this potential ban would not only affect Nigerians as a community of people, but would also strain business and economic ties.”
“This ban would effectively further erode the trust of the people in the American government and demonstrate that this administration is not concerned with the people of Nigeria or Africa in general,” the statement continued. “This Muslim ban expansion emphasizes what we already know: no amount of money or class status can compete with the Administration’s commitment to keep Black and Brown folks policed and criminalized."