NJ Spotlight News
Trump's new travel ban hits NJ families
Clip: 6/6/2025 | 4m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
NJ reacts to the president's travel ban set to begin June 9
East Orange councilman Berg Leneus is the son of Haitian immigrants. President Donald Trump's travel ban — reportedly imposed for security reasons on nationals from Haiti and eleven other nations starting on June 9 — shocked his close-knit community and immigrant families across New Jersey, Leneus said.
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NJ Spotlight News is a local public television program presented by THIRTEEN PBS
NJ Spotlight News
Trump's new travel ban hits NJ families
Clip: 6/6/2025 | 4m 32sVideo has Closed Captions
East Orange councilman Berg Leneus is the son of Haitian immigrants. President Donald Trump's travel ban — reportedly imposed for security reasons on nationals from Haiti and eleven other nations starting on June 9 — shocked his close-knit community and immigrant families across New Jersey, Leneus said.
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipPresident Trump announced a travel ban from 12 countries this week that he says pose a threat to America.
The ban is set to take effect on Monday.
It's creating some confusion and concern among some immigrant communities already here.
Senior correspondent Brenda Flanagan got feedback from a few of those folks today.
Total shock.
There was a wide range of emotions that came over.
Berg Lenius is Haitian-American, an East Orange councilman and son of immigrants who became U.S. citizens.
He says news of the recent Trump travel ban, reportedly imposed for security reasons on nationals from Haiti and 11 other nations, rocked his close-knit community.
It's cruel, it's unjust, it is extremely problematic, you know, because of what's going on in this world.
You know, a lot of these countries, they're destabilized, they are militarized.
Haiti suffered under a state of emergency since March of last year.
The U.S. State Department issued a level 4 do not travel advisory citing quote "kidnapping, crime, civil unrest and limited health care."
The new Trump travel ban states Haiti lacks a central authority with law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States.
That's in line with the president's overall concern.
The extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted, as well as those who come here as temporary visitors and overstay their visas, we don't want them.
It causes fear and anxiety, right?
And the chilling effect that I mentioned earlier, you know, people are afraid to travel, afraid to move.
Saladin Maxouts with the Council on American Islamic Relations.
He recalls how the first Trump administration sparked a firestorm of airport protests and court cases with its so called Muslim travel ban.
This one's wider in scope and yet we still see the very xenophobic anti Muslim kind of bend to this band.
And that, of course, obviously is is the bias that we're calling out and largely we believe that it is unnecessary and unproductive.
What America really needs now is an improved immigration system, right?
The new ban does offer more carve outs, for example, that exempt some afghan nationals who cooperated with the U. S. Government like Dr. Arif Sawari, who's now safely in Tom's River, but he wants to bring his mom here to the U. S. I can't go back to my country.
I can meet her over there and she can't come over here.
If something happens to her and if I can never meet her again, will bring my home.
The travel bans designed to skirt legal obstacles that hampered Trump's first efforts.
It's also expanded to bar nations with immigrants who frequently overstay visas after agents discovered the suspect in the recent Boulder, Colorado terror attack held elapsed tourist visa.
He's egyptian, but Egypt ironically isn't on the travel ban list cares advising its community to avoid traveling outside the U. S. For now, our fear is that the list might change, um, at any moment, any time, and that could cause obviously a lot of harm for those who are traveling and those who have families overseas.
He pointed out the ban also includes seven nations with partial travel restrictions.
Lawsuits are expected, but legal scholars are wondering would foreign nationals living abroad have a constitutional right to due process.
I think it's going to present a lot of challenges combined with the fact that the the most likely people affected really wouldn't have standing.
They're bringing a lawsuit because they're not present in the United States for America to essentially close its doors at a time when it's that these countries are needed the most.
You need that helping hand the most.
It's particularly cruel.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has revoked temporary protected status and work permits for thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela, ordering them to leave the U. S. For nations that are now listed on the new travel ban.
The ban takes effect Monday, June 9th.
I'm Brenda Flanagan and J.
Spotlight News.
Mhm.
Mhm.
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