Biden To End Trump’s Travel Ban

Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at Noon EST, and he has a series of planned Executive Orders to sign on the same day – including rescinding President Trump’s travel ban.

According to multiple reports, Biden will sign about a dozen EOs later in the afternoon following the inauguration, and one of them will lift the ban on immigration to the United States from 13 mostly Muslim nations enacted by Trump when he took office in 2017.

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Twice the ban was struck down by federal judges who said it was religious discrimination, but in June of 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the third version of the policy saying that federal law gives the President broad authority to suspend entry to the U.S.

Significant restrictions on travel to the U.S. were originally placed on Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. Iraq and Sudan were removed, and Chad, North Korea and Venezuela were added.

On Jan. 31, 2020, the administration banned certain visas from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria and Tanzania, and re-added Sudan, which would not allow citizens of those countries to settle permanently in America.

The ban was just one of several impactful travel decisions made by Trump during his four years.

Several media outlets reported that incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain confirmed the rescinding of the travel ban in a memo to senior staff.

“President-elect Biden will take action — not just to reverse the gravest damages of the Trump administration — but also to start moving our country forward,” Klain wrote.