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U.S President is considering imposing a new travel ban and it will include 6 additional countries. It is part of revising a policy that sparked nation-wide demonstrations and tension 3 years ago at American airports. On Friday afternoon, the White House announced the changes capping off a major week for the president that saw him sign a signature trade renegotiation and face down an impeachment trial in the U.S Senate. The new policy would ban travel to the United States for citizens of Nigeria, Eritrea, Myanmar, and Kyrgyzstan. Trump administration said that the new limitations were designed to tighten security for countries that don’t meet with American minimum security standards to combat illegal immigration.

The acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf said during a call with reporters that the visas targeted by the new rules are apparent from the non-immigrant visas that are typically issued to visitors, won’t be impacted. Wolf added that problems facing those countries range from sub-par passport technology to a failure to sufficiently share information related to terrorism suspects. Wolf also said, “These countries, for the most part, want to be helpful. But for a variety of different reasons simply failed to meet those minimum requirements that we laid out”.

The changed policy will not impact the terms of the original travel ban, which was first issued during Trump’s first week in office in January 2017. That advisory banned travelers and nearly all immigrants coming from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen, Iran, Syria, Libya, and Somalia. It is noteworthy that Venezuela and North Korea were also targeted for visa restrictions, but those measures have impacted relatively limited numbers of travelers. The original travel ban was swiftly met with protests at airports around the United States and legal challenges. But, it was eventually endorsed by the U.S Supreme Court by specifying the inherent concern of the U.S President with issues of the U.S National Security.