Belen Sassone/ Contributing Writer
Trump’s highly criticized travel ban was recently updated to include Chad, Venezuela, and North Korea.
Upon reading this news, I immediately thought of my Venezuelan friends, whose families often share horrifying stories of the worsening living conditions in their country.
I worried that they would never be able to make it out of there and have a better future because of the United States shutting the door in their face.
When it comes to the travel ban as a whole, the United States is not doing the best they can to promote safety. There are other ways to keep dangerous people out without leaving millions of harmless victims with nowhere else to turn.
While this travel ban is completely unfair to those who want to escape their corrupt countries or visit family members, it is not limiting the majority of Venezuelan citizens from doing anything.
After doing some further reading, I discovered that the travel ban only applies to certain government officials and their family members. When the update was first released, many media outlets worded it to appear as if it pertained to everyone, making a lot of people panic.
Although U.S.–Venezuela relations may be worsening, not everyone’s families are at risk at the moment. However, in the future, there is no telling what this administration will decide.
Jose Castellanos, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, believes that government and military officials are not the ones living in harsh conditions and their reputation in Venezuela is far from positive.
Regarding the travel ban, he says that “although the impact is something that should always be considered, it shouldn’t be as monumental as generally limiting Venezuela from travelling.”
He believes that if this was the case, it would hurt many innocent families.
The only case that should be considered is “the few military and government officials that are actually legitimate, and are not corrupt and don’t conduce certain violence,” according to Castellanos.
The Trump administration has said that they chose to ban these officials because of the lack of cooperation with the U.S. in providing information on Venezuelan citizens who may be involved in terrorism.
The order read, “Venezuela’s government fails to share public-safety and terrorism-related information adequately,”
Diego Sanchez, a junior majoring in biology, agrees with the administration’s decision to ban Venezuelan officials because “a lot of government and military officials have big houses here in Miami and massive amount of property which they profit from, when in reality the government they support is completely hostile towards this country.”
While Venezuelan citizens can breathe a sigh of relief
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