Fear Spreads Among Muslim Americans as Trump Travel Ban Looms

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A draft version of the Trump administration proposal to prohibit and limit citizens of more than 40 countries from entering the United States leaked in early March. The White House said Thursday that it had not yet made a decision on the policy.

More than a half dozen advocates told USA TODAY that anticipation of the new restrictions, along with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s recent detainment of multiple college students from majority-Muslim countries, has led to a climate of rampant anxiety among the American Muslim community.

The fear isn’t only spreading among those with family living abroad.

“U.S. citizens are afraid to travel overseas, believing there’s a possibility they will be prevented by the Trump administration to return, especially if they’re traveling to Muslim countries,” said Robert McCaw, the government affairs director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, America’s largest Muslim civil rights organization.

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Haris Tarin, vice president at the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said he has never seen such a level of trepidation in his more than two decades of advocacy. He believes some of the alarm is in response to the recent arrests of several college students with valid visas who participated in pro-Palestinian protests.

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For many, the anticipated restrictions are reminiscent of bans Trump implemented on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations during his first term. Trump issued multiple versions of those policies in 2017 and faced numerous lawsuits over them. One was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

The policy currently under consideration by the White House is expected to be more wide-reaching than those floated in the past. It reportedly includes limits on travelers from non-Muslim countries such as Cuba, the tiny, majority Buddhist nation of Bhutan and Haiti.

Tarin said he’s noticed another big difference.

“In 2017, when the Muslim ban was instituted, there was a major reaction from all parts of American civil society . . . we’re not seeing that same level of reaction” now, he said. “Everyone’s exhausted.”

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