President Donald Trump won a major legal victory in June 2018 when the Supreme Court upheld his administration’s ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries on the grounds that those coming in couldn’t be properly vetted. But although the nation’s highest court has said the policy is constitutional, Nancy Pelosi still wants to kill Trump’s travel ban — and now, she’s moving forward with plans to do just that.
“House Democrats continue to stand opposed to President Trump’s cruel, un-American travel ban in all of its iterations,” the House speaker announced in a press release Monday, according to the Daily Caller. “In the coming weeks, the House Judiciary Committee will mark up and bring to the Floor the NO BAN Act to prohibit religious discrimination in our immigration system and limit the [p]resident’s ability to impose such biased and bigoted restrictions.”
Travel ban troubles
Pelosi (D-CA) went on to quote America’s 40th president in her Monday statement, writing:
In his last address as [p]resident, Ronald Reagan warned that “If we ever close the door to new Americans, our leadership in the world would soon be lost.” House Democrats are working tirelessly to uphold our role as a global leader and a beacon of hope and opportunity for countless people around the world.
But far from agreeing to do away with the ban, the Trump administration has actually been planning to expand it. Reuters reported Wednesday that the “Trump administration has not publicly announced the countries under consideration for the expanded travel ban, nor given reasoning for targeting specific nations.”
Still, a source told Reuters that the measure could include “Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania.”
Pelosi, for her part, wasn’t happy about that, either.
“Today, reports indicate that the [a]dministration is once again preparing to expand its dangerous travel ban, threatening key international relationships and jeopardizing our ability to fight terrorism and extremism at home and abroad,” she said in her statement.
She added: “Despite the Administration’s hateful policies and dangerous rhetoric, this fundamental truth remains: immigrants make America more American.”
Looking forward
In addition to imposing additional travel rules, the Trump administration is also pushing ahead with construction on a southern border wall after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals gave the OK earlier this month.
The decision means the administration “can use up to $3.6 billion earmarked for military construction projects while [it] challenges a lower federal court’s injunction against tapping those funds for that purpose,” CNBC reported on Jan. 9.
“This is a victory for the rule of law,” White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said at the time. “We are committed to keeping our borders secure, and we will finish the wall.”
Indeed, with this and his expanded travel ban, it looks like the White House is pushing forward with President Trump’s plans to reform the nation’s crumbling immigration system — despite Nancy Pelosi’s best efforts.
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