Trump Could Make Travel Ban Permanent, Expand to More Countries

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch said this week that he suspects the White House is looking to expand the travel ban after the Supreme Court’s decision this week allowing the temporary ban to go into effect, with some exceptions.

The ban prohibits, for the next 90 days, the entry of people into the U.S. from six countries: Libya, Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iran and Yemen. It also suspends the refugee program for 120 days, and limits the total number of refugees the U.S. takes in this year to 50,000.

“I think the way it ought to go is that the pause be turned into an indefinite ban on individuals from those countries,” Fitton told LifeZette on Tuesday.

He noted that the court, in its notice on Monday, was in full agreement with the Trump administration, with all nine justices agreeing that the lower courts erred in issuing an injunction that stopped the executive order from going into effect, and said the Supreme Court’s decision to allow the ban to go into effect and to agree to hear the case in October is a “big victory for the president.”

“It’s ratified his legal position,” he said.