Trump’s ‘punitive’ travel ban will disproportionately harm LGBTQ+ people, expert warns

A human rights organisation has cautioned that Donald Trump’s travel ban on 12 countries will disproportionately impact LGBTQ+ individuals and other vulnerable populations.

The 78-year-old U.S.A. president enacted a proclamation early Thursday (May 5), restricting travel to the U.S.A. for citizens of several countries. The nations affected by the travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, according to ‘MSN’.

The White House, citing national security concerns, stated that the travel ban aims to prevent “foreign terrorists” from entering the U.S.A.. However, Human Rights First attorney Robyn Barnard characterised the proclamation as “truly punitive,” arguing that the U.S.A. is punishing the listed countries.

In an interview with the BBC World Service, Barnard, who identifies as an “immigrant several times over,” compared the travel ban to an executive order from Trump’s first term in 2017, which similarly restricted citizens from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for 90 days. She noted, “There is no clear thread between each,” pointing out that the only “commonalities” are the countries’ “restrictive policies against women and girls and [LGBTQ+] individuals.” According to Human Rights First, the ban will prevent these marginalised groups from “reuniting with loved ones in the US.”

Barnard added, “It really feels like it’s about punishment and creating more chaos and dysfunction in our immigration system.”

Following the signing of the travel ban, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “We don’t want them.” He referred to a recent incident in Boulder, Colorado, where Mohamed Sabry Soliman, a 45-year-old Egyptian national, injured at least 15 people by throwing Molotov cocktails into a crowd of protestors. Soliman, held by Colorado Police on a $10 million (approximately £7.3 million) cash-only bond, is from a country not included in the travel ban.

Nevertheless, Trump claimed that the attack “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted,” and those who “come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas.”

On the same day, the president also issued an executive order limiting the ability of foreign students to study at Harvard University under temporary visas.