Trump Administration Pushes New Travel Ban Back to Next Week

The Trump administration is delaying the release of a revised travel ban until next week, White House policy adviser Stephen Miller said in an interview on Fox News Wednesday.

While he promised that the new executive order would be “fully responsive to the courts,” Miller said that the changes in the order would be “mostly minor technical differences.”

“Fundamentally you’re going to have the same basic policy outcome for the country,” Miller said.

The comments track with an earlier report that the new executive order would target the same seven Muslim-majority countries as the original travel ban -- Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. One draft described by the Associated Press earlier this week exempts travelers who already have a visa to travel to the United States, even if they haven’t used it yet, as well as green card holders and dual U.S. citizens.

The move will aim to continue a policy that triggered travel delays and protests at airports across the United States when it was first implemented, as well as a range of commentary from the travel industry.

In a press call shortly after the original ban was implemented, Eben Peck, SVP, government and industry affairs at the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) said that the ban was having a “chilling effect” on the travel industry. At the same time, ASTA said that the views of its membership on the policy are split, and that it would release a survey diving deeper into what its member agents think of the ban.

The Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) warned that the uncertainty created by the executive order and its sudden implementation could harm business travel. According to a set of GBTA polls released shortly after the new policy, nearly half of travel professionals in Europe said that their company expects to reduce business travel over the next three months due to the ban, while 31 percent of respondents from the United States agreed.

The GBTA estimated that U.S. business travel transactions fell up to 8 percent month-over-month from December to January. U.S. business travel had been increasing by 1.2 percent in the week before the ban was issued, but fell 2.2 percent the week after, for a net negative impact of 3.4 percent over the week the ban was issued. That led to approximately $185 million in lost business bookings over the course of that week.

“While the White House’s stated goal was acting in the interest of national security, it did not give the civil servants responsible for implementing the ban any chance to do so effectively,” the GBTA said. “There was too much uncertainty and a lack of clarity around the executive order, leading to general confusion. The net effect was that business travel bookings were delayed or canceled.”

U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow had said that, while his organization recognizes the need to maintain national security, the order could hurt business and leisure travel to the United States.

"Over the past two weeks, our members have voiced their concerns about how an unintended consequence of this executive order could be a reduction in both international leisure and business travel to the United States,” Dow said. “Destinations large and small depend on these visitors to sustain local businesses and jobs.

"That said, we stand with the administration, Congress and law enforcement officials, as we all remain vigilant during an era of constantly changing global security dynamics,” Dow said. “As always, we believe in striking a balance that places a premium on both security and our nation’s history as a welcoming place for travelers from around the globe."

Source: Travel Agent Central