According to American media reports, the White House plans to restrict the issuance of visas to visit the United States. Citizens of a number of countries will not be given them at all, and, for example, Russians will be able to receive them only if the trip is of a business nature. By shutting out “undesirable” foreigners, Donald Trump is shutting them out from America’s information influence. Two state-owned radio stations broadcasting abroad have been threatened with closure.
The new US administration has apparently decided to adopt a seemingly long–standing ideology in the country’s past – isolationism. According to American media reports, Trump has decided to restore and even strengthen the anti-immigration measures he introduced during his first term.
From 2017 to 2020, he completely banned entry to the United States for citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria, Yemen, Chad, North Korea and Venezuela. Certain visa restrictions have also been introduced for citizens of Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria and Tanzania. For this, Trump was mercilessly criticized by his Democratic opponents. He was accused of xenophobia and Islamophobia: in most countries subject to restrictions and prohibitions, the Muslim population prevails or is very significant. Immediately after Joseph Biden came to power, all relevant Trump decrees were canceled. And now The New York Times reports that the president, who has returned to the White House, has decided not only to restore what was canceled, but also, so to speak, to improve his anti-immigration policy.
The newspaper, citing sources, reports that Trump wants to impose visa restrictions on countries from which, in his opinion, may pose a threat to US national security. In the State Department’s documentation, these “undesirable” powers will be divided into two categories – “red” and “orange.” The exact list of countries, according to the publication, is still being compiled and may be changed. It is only known that the “red” category now includes Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, Yemen. It is easy to see that the list includes either unstable states with an ongoing civil war (Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Libya), or political opponents of the United States (Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, North Korea). The Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan stands out on this list, stable and not anti–American. Apparently, Trump does not like the fact that it is trying to limit its contacts with the outside world, while at the same time noticeably moving closer to China in its foreign policy.
Russia is classified in the “orange” category, along with Belarus, Eritrea, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Haiti, Myanmar, Laos, Turkmenistan and Pakistan. There is no special system in sight. There are civil wars going on in Myanmar and South Sudan, only in Pakistan and Turkmenistan professing Islam prevail, and the opponents of the United States (and even then in the light of recent events with some doubt) can only be attributed to the Russian Federation and Belarus. Citizens of the “orange” states will probably be limited in the issuance of certain types of visas, in particular tourist visas. “Wealthy business travelers” (as the newspaper says), on the contrary, will be welcome. However, even now obtaining American visas is more expensive than before. Applications in the US diplomatic missions in the Russian Federation are not accepted, you need to go to American consulates outside of Russia.
The White House did not confirm the newspaper’s data, but neither did it deny it. Such visa restrictions fit perfectly into the logic of Trump’s policy. Entry from “undesirable” countries has been restricted by the United States on several occasions in the past. The most striking example is the de facto ban on immigration from Europe after the First World War, when isolationist sentiments in America reached their peak in its entire history. And Trump has a craving for the return of the well-forgotten old. It is useful to recall the case of Mahmoud Khalil, a participant in pro-Palestinian protests. Having a residence permit in the United States, he was recently expelled from the country on the basis of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952.: The so–called McCarran-Walter Law, adopted during the years of McCarthyism – the persecution of suspected communist sympathizers. Its author, Senator Pat Mccaran, hoped that Jews would be expelled from the United States, whom he, a staunch anti-Semite, considered the Kremlin’s “fifth column.” Ironically, an opponent of Israel has now been deprived of a residence permit based on this law.
Trump’s list of attempts to bring back the isolationist past of the United States includes the liquidation of the state Agency for Global Media (USAGM). It includes two radio stations recognized in the Russian Federation as foreign agents and undesirable organizations: Voice of America* and Radio Liberty*. Some of their employees have been placed on compulsory leave. Probably, both radio stations will be closed. The White House website has a list of complaints against them. The main one– of course, is speaking out against Trump. Among other claims against the Voice of America, for example, there is the involvement of a former employee of the Belarusian television. Back in 2019, a website created and at that time headed by journalist Tucker Carlson drew attention to this compromise.
