Fewer US visas issued to travellers from Muslim-majority countries

With Trump's travel ban suspended, the US administration is using other means to achieve its goal, a senior official says.

The US president Donald Trump’s first executive order to block arrivals from seven Muslim-majority countries sparked widespread protets, including this one at the international terminal of Chicago’s O’Hare Airport on February 1, 2017. Scott Olson / Getty Images / AFPShow less

New York // Donald Trump’s travel ban may have been blocked by the courts but the US has sharply reduced the number of visas granted to citizens of Arab or Muslim-majority countries, according to government data.

State department figures show the number of non-immigrant visas issued to travellers from almost 50 mainly Muslim nations in April was nearly 20 per cent lower than the monthly total during 2016.

The difference is even more stark if only the seven countries targeted in the original travel ban – Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Syria – are considered. The number of visas issued dropped by more than a third.

In comparison, the overall number of visas issued to all countries in April dropped by only 15 per cent.

It suggests Mr Trump’s administration has found ways of enacting its campaign pledge of banning foreign Muslims from entering the US, which are beyond the reach of the courts.

A senior White House official told the The National: "We pushed the operational aspects of this executive order out to the consulates and embassies. The judges have no powers there. A judge in Hawaii cannot control what we do in our consulate in Yemen or in Iraq."

The state department did not release data on the number of visa applications, so it was not clear whether the reduction was down to travellers opting to stay away from the US, slower processing times or more rejections.

“Visa demand is cyclical, not uniform throughout the year, and affected by various factors at the local and international level,” said William Cocks, a spokesman for the department’s bureau of consular affairs.

The travel ban, enacted through an executive order issued at the end of Mr Trump’s first week in power, provoked widespread anger and was quickly struck down by the courts. A revised order that dropped Iraq from the list of countries was issued on March 6 but suspended by a judge in Hawaii just before it could take effect on March 16.

In another setback, a US appeals court on Thursday refused to reinstate the executive order, calling it discriminatory and setting the stage for a showdown in the supreme court.

“Congress granted the president broad power to deny entry to aliens, but that power is not absolute. It cannot go unchecked when, as here, the president wields it through an executive edict that stands to cause irreparable harm to individuals across this nation,” said the majority opinion of the US 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Judges in several courts have so far sided with opponents who say the ban is intended to discriminate against Muslims.