With just a few quick strokes of the pen, President Donald Trump on Friday banned citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for at least the next 90 days by executive order.
The executive order bars all people hailing from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — or at least 134 million people.
Iran Saturday banned Americans from entering its country in retaliation over Trump’s executive order banning Iranians entering U.S
Syrian family with U.S visas barred from boarding flight from Paris to Atlanta.
An Iranian studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was also barred from returning to Boston.
A senior White House official said later Friday is likely just a first step toward establishing a broader ban, but the executive order also makes clear those seven countries are just a starting point for a likely broader ban.
The order exempts diplomats and members of international organizations from the ban.
During the campaign, Trump talked about these countries as “terror-prone” countries. He called for banning all Muslims from the US — a statement he never retracted — before shifting toward calling for banning individuals from countries with terrorist links.
Suspends the US refugee program
Trump also stopped the admission of all refugees to the United States for four months.
Trump also more than halved the number of refugees who could eventually be admitted in 2017 to 50,000 from the 110,000 cap established under former President Barack Obama.
Trump also states in the order that refugees should be prioritized for entry on the basis of religious persecution, “provided that the religion of the individual is a minority religion.”
That would open the door for Christian refugees from Muslim-majority countries to be accepted in the US while Muslims fleeing those countries would be excluded.
