MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump has expanded one of the most controversial policies of his first term. It's a ban on travelers from certain countries. The order, which went into effect yesterday, restricts travel to the United States by citizens of 19 nations, many of them African and majority-Muslim countries. NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez has a closer look.
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UNIDENTIFIED AUDIENCE: (Chanting) USA. USA.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we start by saying, hello, Iowa. This is...
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: On the campaign trail, Donald Trump repeatedly boasted that he would bring back some of his toughest immigration policies, including the travel ban.
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TRUMP: I will ship massive portions of federal law enforcement to immigration enforcement, and we will immediately restore and expand the Trump travel ban on entry from terror-plagued countries. We don't want people...
ORDOÑEZ: As the election grew closer, Trump expanded on his broader goals. It was not just about the border or national security. It was about protecting what he called the fabric of the country, as he explained in North Carolina.
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TRUMP: They're destroying our country, and we can't take it any longer. We have to change. We have to change immediately. I think it's the biggest problem. I think it's bigger than the economy. I think it's bigger than inflation 'cause they're ruining the fabric of our country.
ORDOÑEZ: Upon entering the White House, Trump declared an invasion on the southern border, sought to end birthright citizenship, and suspended the refugee program. And then last week, he announced the new travel ban on citizens from 12 nations, including Afghanistan, Chad and Libya. Seven other countries, including Sierra Leone and Venezuela, are under a partial ban.
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TRUMP: We want to get them out now. We don't want to have other bad people coming into our country.
ORDOÑEZ: The measure is the latest example of how Trump is moving more aggressively to reshape the criteria for who is allowed in the country.
KRISH O'MARA VIGNARAJAH: This isn't happening in a vacuum. It is part of a much broader agenda.
ORDOÑEZ: Krish O'Mara Vignarajah is president of Global Refuge, a resettlement agency. She says it's telling that the only refugees Trump is allowing into the country are white South Africans. People from other backgrounds are facing more restrictions.
O'MARA VIGNARAJAH: On the one hand, we're seeing Afrikaners receive a chartered flight to enter the U.S. while the administration has moved swiftly and systematically to close legal avenues across the immigration system.
ORDOÑEZ: David Bier, the director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, sees no consistent criteria for grouping these particular 19 countries together. He points to the emphasis in the new ban on people who overstay their visas. But there are more people from other countries who are doing that same thing, and they're not on the list.
DAVID BIER: There are more people who are overstaying from Europe than all of these African countries that are - have been banned by this put together.
ORDOÑEZ: The White House says it's not just about overstays. The banned nations also lack proper vetting, fail to share threat information, or won't accept back their deported citizens. Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, called the measures, quote, "commonsense restrictions" that "protect American citizens from dangerous foreign actors." Leon Fresco, who served on Trump's Homeland Security Advisory Council during his first term, says the new ban was carefully written to avoid the legal challenges of the original ban.
LEON FRESCO: It will be very hard for a court to overturn this because this doesn't seem to be the kind of willy-nilly ban that doesn't take into account very important factors.
ORDOÑEZ: But others say it's less of a legal question and more of a moral one. John Simon, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the African Union in the Bush administration, says most of these African nations on the list are in dire straits.
JOHN SIMON: The list looks less like an attempt to keep terrorists out and more like an attempt to keep people fleeing for their lives out.
ORDOÑEZ: He says that's at odds with what the U.S. has traditionally done, which is help those in need.
Franco Ordoñez, NPR News, the White House.
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