President Donald Trump added three new nations to his controversial travel ban on Sunday. While Sudan was removed from the list, Chad was added along with North Korea. In addition, the ban also now covers government officials from Venezuela and their families except in the case of them wanting to immigrate.
North Korea became the first non-majority Muslim country to make President Trump’s infamous travel ban.
Trump signed off Sunday on new restrictions on travelers from three countries not initially part of his contentious Muslim travel ban.
In addition to travelers from North Korea and Chad, senior government officials and their families in Venezuela are barred from obtaining non-immigrant visas. The rules take effect on Oct. 18.
Trump announced the new ban to replace one slated to expire after 90 days on Sunday. That policy barred travelers from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Syria and Yemen who lack a “credible claim of a bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
The latest restrictions lift the travel ban on Sudan.
Frankly, adding North Korea is a mistake. A horrible one, and for the same reason early reports that Venezuela was getting similar treatment made me think “mistake” as well.
North Korea, like so many other communist/socialist hellholes, does all it can to tightly control the flow of information out of the nation and into the rest of the world. We simply cannot trust anything shared through official channels with North Korea because they simply won’t tell us the truth when there’s a problem. North Koreans, like Venezuelans, are starving and the government continues to act like nothing is wrong.
By cutting off travel from North Korea, you stop the flow of legitimate refugees–not people that might be Islamic terrorists, mind you, but people who are genuinely terrified of their home government–and the flow of real information about the country.
In addition, you cut off the most effective arguments against socialism you’re likely to find — namely, those arguments from people who lived under it.
While internet socialists will routinely argue that North Korea and Venezuela aren’t exampls real socialism, those arguments fall on deaf ears for most people. After all, when the internet socialists start defining socialism, it sure sounds like real socialism, so when people fleeing North Korea talk about how horrible the conditions in the country are, it’s a powerful message that socialism. Does. Not. Work.
Ever.
That’s not all, however. It’s not even a drop in the bucket.
Most who travel from North Korea intend to return for whatever reason. That means their experiences will counter the disinformation put out by Kim Jung Un’s government about how horrible life is here under capitalism. Let them come. Let them see the plenty we enjoy. Let them see the full supermarket shelves and endless choices. Let them see the profound lack of starvation or even malnutrition. Let them see it all.
Then let them go home where they will remember the differences. While they may be afraid, some will inevitably speak about what they saw, and people who trust them will remember those words. They’ll not only know that the government is lying to them but that a better life is possible.
If that happens enough, we’ll see one of our biggest threats collapse from within.
So, absent any legitimate threat to the United States from run-of-the-mill residents of North Korea, a travel ban from that country is a colossal mistake. Let them come. Let them see for themselves.
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