After a number of court battles and countless disrupted lives, Trump has finally come out with a revised travel and immigration ban.

What’s going on?

A new executive order has been signed which changes and replaces the existing travel and immigration ban which Trump signed shortly after taking office. The new version leaves existing visas intact and removes Iraqi nationals from its purview, meaning Iraqis are subject to same travel and immigration rules as people from any other country outside of the six still affected.

New visas will not be issued to citizens from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen for a period of 90 days. Refugees from any country will be put on hold for admission for 120 days.

Why is it important?

It’s important not to lose sight of the fact that this policy, while revised, is still essentially a Muslim ban. There is no real national security concern involved in the implementation of these rules. They exist to fulfill a campaign pledge from Trump, and to put Muslim travelers on notice, whether they are affected by this rule or not.

The US has a long history of implementing immigration laws and regulations to placate the fears of bigots and xenophobes. This is no different.

What can I do?

Continue to oppose these pointless, harmful restrictions. Even a rehabilitated version of this order is still fundamentally unjust.