Travel Ban Countries: U.S. Imported Foreign Population Nearly 4X the Size of Beverly Hills

Over the past three years, the United States imported more than 131,000 foreign nationals from the terrorist-prone countries that are included in President Trump’s travel ban which has been upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Trump’s travel ban, which seeks to halt all immigration from the following nations until “extreme vetting” procedures can be properly implemented:

• Chad
• Iran
• Iraq
• Libya
• North Korea
• Syria
• Venezuela
• Yemen

Six of the eight countries included in Trump’s travel ban have either sponsored Islamic terrorism in the past or have major issues with terrorism. Those terrorism problems, though, have not kept the U.S. from importing foreign nationals from or born in these countries.

For example, more than 131,000 foreign nationals from Chad, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen have been admitted to the U.S. for permanent resettlement between Fiscal Years 2014 and 2016. This is a foreign population that is nearly four times the size of Beverly Hills, California.

In Fiscal Year 2016, alone, the U.S. imported nearly 20,000 Iraqi nationals. In 2014 and 2015, more than 40,000 Iraqi nationals were admitted to the country.

Close to 51,000 foreign nationals from these six terrorist-prone travel ban countries were imported to the U.S. in Fiscal Year 2016, a population that is larger than many American suburbs.

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) praised the Supreme Court’s upholding of Trump’s travel ban, saying in a statement that the immigration controls are necessary to protect American citizens.

[President Trump] is lawfully protecting innocent Americans from those who enter the United States to do us harm. [Emphasis added]

We ought to take every reasonable step possible to protect the American people from terrorism. Foreign nationals from countries that pose national security threats should not be admitted until they can be properly vetted by our national security agencies. [Emphasis added]