Trump’s Immigration Policies Continue to Split Families Apart

Donald Trump has been busy making lots of changes to the US immigration policies and travel rules and recently added six countries to his controversial travel ban. Whilst most of Trump’s actions have received a great deal of criticism across the world, not many people were expecting Nigeria to be added to the travel ban. The other five countries are Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan and Tanzania. This brings the total number of restricted countries to 13.

His decision to add Nigeria to the list has caused upset for many Nigerian citizens, with families being kept apart now that family members are unable to join their relatives in the US.

US military veteran impacted by travel ban

A recent interview in The Guardian outlined the impact that the new ruling has had on one family. Olumide is a US military veteran who served in Afghanistan who was looking forward to his wife and daughter joining him as their visa applications were close to being fully processed. However, the decision to make the immigration process near impossible for Nigerians means that Olumide’s family will be unable to live with him in the US. One of his poignant messages is “As a soldier, I understand the need to protect the country. But to completely shut the doors ... it’s just plain wrong.”

Olumide is just one of the many families that have been impacted by the changes and it seems inconceivable that he has served for the US military and then be affected in this way. It is also somewhat surprising that Africa’s most populated and highest economy country, Nigeria would be affected in this way.

Trump targets countries where there is Muslim majority

The latest addition of six countries to the travel ban has impacted citizens that could potentially be fleeing violence in their country, which is a big difference to the US asylum system that was once more welcoming to those looking for a safer life.

The Myanmar government have been persecuting Muslim Rohingya people, with over 10,000 deaths in one of the world’s worst cases of ongoing genocide. These people are now unable to seek asylum in the US, due to Trump’s latest ruling.

Trump has focused on countries that are mostly Muslim, making it more difficult to citizens from Africa and Asia to move to the US, or even to visit the US. Recently, there were increases on visa application fees and the criteria for US travel has been made stricter throughout Trump’s time in the White House.

The US supreme court has stepped in on several occasions to contest some of Trump’s rulings but have only seen successes in some areas. The only real hope for the families that are affected by the tough immigration stance is for a new president to get elected. It is thought that a new president is likely to be less strict on immigration and that the possibility of completely removing the travel ban is a likelihood.