President Donald Trump is preparing to issue a new travel and visa ban for citizens of countries whom he deems a security risk or who have a history of illegally remaining in the United States. During his first term, Trump issued several executive orders that banned entry for citizens of 15 countries. While many in the media labeled his actions a “Muslim Ban,” this was unfair: Myanmar, North Korea, and Venezuela are not Muslim, and Nigeria and Eritrea are only half Muslim. Seeking to use Islamophobia to stymie real debate and concern about immigration only polarized the debate further.
While former President Joe Biden rescinded the ban, Trump now seeks not only to reimpose it but also widen it to 41 countries. Not all banned countries are equal, however. The draft directive categorizes countries into red, orange, and yellow lists. All red-listed countries would face visa bans, orange-listed countries would face significant restrictions, and yellow-listed countries would have 60 days to address Trump administration concerns to prevent their moving into the higher categories. The red list includes Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
Every red-list country deserves its status except perhaps for poor Bhutan, a friendly but insular Himalayan kingdom that lacks a U.S. embassy. Cuba’s inclusion is overdue. Ten percent of Cubans have fled their country over the last two years, most often to the U.S. When I was at Havana’s Jose Marti International Airport, a line snaked through the terminal with Cubans heading to Nicaragua, a destination for which they needed no visas. Most were excited: They were going to the U.S. illegally. Buses would meet them at Managua’s airport, they said, and take them directly to the U.S. border with Mexico.
Somalia, too, deserves the visa ban. Mogadishu is happy to take billions of dollars in aid, even as it embraces Beijing and vocally supports Hamas and other terrorist causes. The Somali government’s corruption has allowed Al-Shabaab, the local al Qaeda affiliate, to return to the outskirts of Mogadishu. Fahad Yasin, Somalia’s previous national security adviser, was a former Al Jazeera reporter who subsequently joined an al Qaeda-linked group. To offer Somalis visas absent incredible vetting beyond the scope of U.S. intelligence is to risk terrorism on American soil.
But not all of Somalia is the same. Somaliland, while unrecognized, is night and day different from the rest of Somalia. Somaliland is democratic — unlike Somalia, which appoints its leaders. While Somalia embraces China, Somaliland partners with Taiwan. While Somalia cheers Hamas, Somaliland courts Israel. While Mogadishu is unsafe, Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, and its port of Berbera are safer than any American city. My nine-year-old daughter visited without security. While terrorist gangs smuggle weaponry across Somalia, Somaliland secures its 450-mile coastline.
Somaliland is also home to the Abaarso network, perhaps the United States Agency for International Development’s most successful project. Abaarso school graduates have ended up at nearly every Ivy League school and have reached the top echelons of American business. The taxes they pay more than offset any grant USAID originally made. Abaarso graduates stay legally but also return to pay it forward. Today, Hargeisa boasts perhaps the best schools not only in the Horn of Africa but along the continent’s entire east coast.
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Rather than punish Somaliland for doing the right thing, tweaking the visa ban to allow Somalilanders but prohibit those from Mogadishu-controlled Somalia would send the signal that behavior and accountability matter. Somalia might complain, but the answer would be simple: Be more like Somaliland.
The Trump administration is reportedly now considering leasing a base in Berbera to help counter Houthi terrorists and secure freedom of navigation. Somaliland is willing to do what Washington requests, while anti-Americanism is the currency in Mogadishu. The State Department would never treat Taiwanese and Chinese as the same, whatever China’s fanciful claims. To conflate Somalilanders and Somalis would be equally ridiculous.
Michael Rubin is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is director of analysis at the Middle East Forum and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.