President Donald Trump had imposed a travel ban to restrict entry of people from certain Muslim majority countries. The purpose of the ban was to make America safe from threats of terrorist attacks and was conveyed through an executive order in January soon after he assumed office. The ban was challenged in the Court and was modified thrice.
CNN reports that the US Supreme Court has, now, granted its approval on the latest version of the ban. It can take effect pending appeals in lower courts.
The third edition of the ban was released in September, and it imposed varying levels of restrictions on foreign nationals from eight countries: Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia, and Yemen.
A battle is won
The decision of the US Supreme Court is a feather in the cap of the Trump administration because the President has the authority to impose such restrictions when he has to protect national security.
Solicitor General Noel Francisco argued that the travel ban was an instrument to protect national security. The Constitution and acts of Congress grant authority to the President to ensure that outsiders who enter the country, do not pose any threat to the US citizens. It was linked to the call of Donald Trump to make America safe again.
Noel Francisco also pointed out that critics have labeled it as a "Muslim Ban." This is not correct because some of the countries included in the ban do not fall into the category of Muslim majority countries.
Hence, the ban does not have any religious undertones.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said that the decision of the Supreme Court was expected because such a ban would help to contain terrorist attacks in the United States and protect the homeland.
Terrorism must be tackled
Terrorism is an evil of recent times, and most of the groups are linked to outfits whose main agenda is to terrorize the common man.
They use suicide bombers to carry out terrorist strikes on unsuspecting innocents and do not spare women and children. In some cases, they have driven vehicles into crowds to mow down people.
Therefore, even though the US travel ban formulated by Donald Trump could affect the travel plans of some people, it would in the interest of overall security.
If terrorist boards a flight with the intention of blowing it up in midair, the dead will include people of different countries and faiths. Hence, to eliminate possible threats, a filtering system is necessary at the ground level, and the ban is nothing but that.
Of course, threats from homegrown terrorists and lone-wolf operators will continue to remain. To tackle these, there have to be separate strategies.
