AGENCY
Washington: For the first time, the Trump administration has indicated that Pakistan could be included in a list of Muslim-majority countries from where immigration to the US has been banned by President Donald Trump.
Trump’s controversial executive order, signed on Friday, halted the entire US refugee programme for 120 days, indefinitely banned Syrian refugees, and suspended all nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Syria and Somalia.
“Now, you can point to other countries that have similar problems, like Pakistan and others. Perhaps we need to take it further. But for now, immediate steps, pulling the Band-Aid off, is to do further vetting for people traveling in and out of those countries,” White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told CBS News.
This is for the first time that the Trump Administration has publicly acknowledged about considering putting Pakistan into that list.
“We’re not going to advertise to the world that we’re going to put a stop or at least a further vetting on travel in and out of our country from these seven places,” Priebus said.
“Some people have suggested, that, well, maybe we should have given everyone a three-day warning. But that would just mean that a terrorist would just move up their travel plans by three days. Identifying too many people in these countries and giving them a heads-up in these countries would only potentially flag the executive order for bad order,” he said.
“The President has a call with leadership in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and other countries around world. And I’m sure this topic may come up,” he said. Priebus asserted that Americans have to be protected first.
“These are countries that harbour and train terrorists.
These are countries that we want to know who is coming and going in and out of to prevent calamities from happening in this country,” he said.
