Visa overstays, the order elaborates, “indicates a blatant disregard for United States immigration laws”.
The United Nations estimates that $86bn leaves the continent each year in “illicit financial flows”, or theft through criminal activities and tax evasion.
In displacement camps in New York and Tijuana and the Aegean islands of Greece, I have met pharmacists, artists, DJs and journalists from many of the targeted countries.
Just this week I spoke to a political activist who, forced to flee a massacre in one of the targeted countries, left her three young children behind.
It is not the people of these nations that are a threat to the security of the United States.
There doesn’t seem to be any logic or rhyme to the Trump administration’s most recent order banning certain nations. Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are all targeted for complete prohibition, while Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela are all targeted for restrictions. The order explains that they all present security risks based on “whether each country has a significant terrorist presence within its territory, its visa-overstay rate, and its cooperation with accepting back its removable nationals.”.
The directive goes on to say that visa overstays “indicate a blatant disregard for United States immigration laws.”. However, the most recent Customs and Border Protection data on overstays does indicate that these nations, along with others left off the list, rank highly.
However, we can observe a different unifying logic if we take a moment to consider this list while paying attention to the history of the world we live in. These nations are all in the global south, and their populations are Muslim and classified as either Black or brown. Nearly half of the population lives in poverty in the majority. Numerous places have recently witnessed horrifying wars or social unrest. For instance, the World Food Program lists Yemen, Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan as having some of the worst food crises in the world.
These facts don’t support the travel ban’s assumption that citizens of these countries are inherently violent or have a tendency to “disregard” the law. Actually, there is no indication of a person’s legal status in the data on overstays. Because of the insecurity in their nations, citizens of Afghanistan, Burma, El Salvador, Haiti, Somalia, Sudan, and Venezuela have long been able to apply for temporary protected status. How many of the so-called “overstayers” applied for additional protections, such as asylum, is unknown.
The primary cause of these countries’ poverty and instability is imperialism, which includes US economic and military coercion and intervention.
Without considering the French extortion of the island nation in exchange for their freedom from slavery and the US occupation of it, you are unable to comprehend the widespread violence or economic hardship that drives people to flee Haiti. It is impossible to comprehend the mass migration from Afghanistan, which has one of the biggest refugee populations in the world, without comprehending how the United States funded the mujahideen and the so-called “war on terror,” which did little more than further destabilize the country. The United States backed British efforts to destroy Iranian democracy in order to save British Petroleum, which is the only reason Iran has its current regime.
US sanctions have caused economic destruction and mass displacement rather than pressuring regime change in Cuba, Venezuela, or Iran. The bodies of Yemeni children have been found to contain American shrapnel. At least 68 of the 250 victims of US strikes on Saada and Sanaa since March were detained African migrants.
Data consistently demonstrates that African nations like gold-rich Sudan, oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, and Chad, which have been devastated by corporations like ExxonMobil, are victims of theft rather than poverty. According to UN estimates, $86 billion is transferred out of the continent annually through “illicit financial flows,” which include theft through criminal activity and tax evasion. Additionally, it is estimated that nations in the global south, including those on this list, paid more than $2 trillion in interest to the global north alone between 1970 and 2022. The former president of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, once referred to debt as a “skillfully managed reconquest of Africa.”.
The world’s poorest countries bear the cost of the climate crisis caused by the wealthiest countries. According to climate activists, governments in the global north owe nations in the global south $5 trillion annually for the destruction they are causing them.
According to this perspective, Trump’s travel ban, which in its opening paragraphs proudly references what became known as the “Muslim ban” of his first administration, is a brutal extension of a long-standing practice of taking advantage of the lives of Black and brown people and evicting their most vulnerable members.
In the Aegean islands of Greece, as well as in the displacement camps in New York and Tijuana, I have encountered journalists, artists, pharmacists, and DJs from numerous targeted nations. I recently had a conversation with a political activist who had to leave her three young children behind after being forced to escape a massacre in one of the targeted nations. She expressed her concerns to me following the imposition of this ban, including her ability to obtain asylum, which is presently being decided, and her ability to reunite with her family in the future. She said in a broken voice, “I wish they could realize that I never wanted to come here.”. “”.
Trump used the recent incident in Boulder, Colorado, where an Egyptian man injured twelve people demanding the release of Israeli hostages—though Egypt is noticeably not on the list—to support the ban. It is ridiculous that this one act warrants the exclusion of millions of people. This most recent prohibition is merely the latest in a line of measures intended to “Make America white again,” which also includes the suspension of humanitarian parole and the prohibition on asylum. It occurs as our immigrant students continue to be attacked, especially those who dare to criticize the US for funding the destruction of Gaza.
The threat to American security does not lie with the citizens of these countries. They have long been threatened by the United States, which has stolen their wealth, destroyed their environments and institutions, and then refused to let them enjoy the safety that was created at their expense. Instead of making our sins worse, we ought to be atoning for them.
