President Biden cancels travel ban on Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Eritrea and others
President Joe Biden; who was inaugurated on January 20, 2021 (marking the commencement of his four-year term as president and Kamala Harris as vice president of the USA), has already started reversing some of president Trump’s policies; a move which many political analyst believe will further deepen partisan divide in America
Barely few hours after President Biden’s inauguration, he took to his twitter account to announce that he will start performing his duties at the oval office right away.
In his first tweet (after his inauguration) US President Joe Biden said there is no time to waste when it comes to tackling the crises America is facing hence he is heading to the Oval Office to get right to work to deliver bold action and immediate relief for American families,”
After the aforementioned tweet, U.S President Joe Biden (on his first day in office) signed a series of executive actions to reverse the policies of Donald Trump administration on immigration and others.
Hours after taking the office, Biden issued an executive order to end Trump’s controversial ‘Muslim travel ban’, which blocked travel to the United States from several predominantly Muslim and African countries.
It should be noted that during Trump’s first week in office in 2017, he implemented the Muslim Ban that initially restricted travel from seven Muslim-majority nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen.
In February 2020, Trump later expanded the ban to include additional restrictions on citizens of six more countries which includes: Myanmar, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.
The ban faced several legal challenges, but the Supreme Court upheld the measure in 2018.
President Biden has now directed the State Department to restart immigration visa processing for individuals from the affected countries and to develop ways to address the harm caused to those who were prevented from coming to the United States because of the ban, The New York Times reported.
Ending the ban was one of Biden’s top campaign promises on immigration policy, and he has now delivered.
The American Civil Liberties Union;a non-profit civil rights organization, has applauded the move calling the Trump travel policy a “cruel Muslim ban that targeted Africans.”
However many political analyst are of the opinion that at a time when the nation is divided following the result of the presidential election (of which Trump refused to concede defeat), what president Biden would have done in his first week in office, was to preach unity in order to unite the nation and rebuild trust before he can start changing Trump’s policies.
According to many political analyst, changing Trump policy on day 1 may further deepen partisan divide in America and this may ignite an anti-Biden protest in the nation and clashes between president Biden and Trump’s supporters.
As a reminder, on Thursday morning (14th of January), hundreds of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol by breaching four layers of security and entering the buildings at a time when the US Congress was on its way to certify Joe Biden as the next US President.
One woman was killed in police firing even as hundreds of men and women (armed with pro-Trump flags and even explosives that the security personnel neutralized) stormed the US Capitol in a last-ditch effort to overturn the US election result in which Trump has failed to secure a second term.
As the violence went on for hours, police evacuated the US lawmakers to safety. After over three hours of the invasion, police managed to clear the US Capitol building for Congress to reconvene and go ahead with the certification process. The Congress resumed session and certified over 270 electoral college votes to secure Joe Biden’s victory over Trump hours after the invasion.
The FBI said it had disarmed two suspected explosive devices found among the Trump supporters. Police say four people died as Trump supporters occupied the US Capitol. One woman was shot by police and three others died in medical emergencies.
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