Former President Donald Trump said on Monday that if re-elected to the White House, he would reinstate and expand a travel ban on people from predominantly Muslim countries, suspend refugee resettlement and aggressively deport those he described as having “jihadist sympathies”.
During a campaign rally in Clive, Iowa, Trump pointed to deadly Hamas attacks in Israel and raised fears of a potential attack on the US as he sought to make the case for his hardline immigration policies. His proposals would amount to a sweeping overhaul of America’s immigration system and would almost certainly face legal challenges if implemented.
During his presidency, Trump’s travel ban was a signature policy, restricting travellers from seven predominantly Muslim countries: Iran, Libya, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. The administration later expanded the ban to include several African countries. President Joe Biden reversed the travel ban after taking office in 2021.
Trump said on Monday that he would implement “strict ideological vetting of all immigrants to the United States” and said the US would “prevent dangerous lunatics, haters, bigots and madmen from obtaining residency in our country”.
He also said he would ban travel from Gaza, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya “or anywhere else that threatens our security”.
The former president said he would revoke the student visas of “radical anti-American and anti-Semitic foreigners” enrolled in US colleges and universities and deport them. Trump criticised pro-Palestinian protests and said he would send Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to what he described as “pro-jihadist demonstrations”.
“We’ve got to protect our own country,” Trump said.
Other Republican presidential candidates on Monday called for the revocation of student visas and the deportation of foreign nationals in the US who have pledged allegiance to Hamas. The escalating rhetoric from GOP candidates comes as the conflict between Israel and Hamas deepens and the death toll from the war rises sharply.
“Anybody who stands up and says they want to kill Jews, they support terrorism, they should have their visa revoked,” Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina said in a radio interview on “The Sean Hannity Show”.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis also backed such a proposal, saying on “The Guy Benson Show” that if someone on a visa expressed support for Hamas, “they don’t have a right to be here on a visa, they don’t have a right to study in the United States“.
DeSantis was responding to a question about whether he supported Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, who over the weekend called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to revoke the immigrant visas of recipients in the US who have supported terrorist activity by Hamas.
Republican presidential candidates have sought to position themselves as unwavering supporters of Israel after Hamas launched a deadly surprise attack on the country, which then declared war on the terrorist group. Trump has condemned the attacks and expressed support for Israel, but he received significant backlash from GOP rivals and others last week for criticising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying Netanyahu was caught off guard by the Hamas attack. Trump also praised the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as “very smart”.
