The latest expansion of the US travel ban has been justified using the now familiar language of security risks and weak vetting systems. Seven more countries have been placed on a no-entry list. On paper, this rationale appears technocratic and neutral. In practice, however, the pattern of the ban suggests that ethnic preferences and biases are becoming inseparable from security assessment.

After the most recent additions, the United States has expanded the list of countries with full or partial travel restrictions to thirty-nine, up from nineteen, according to the White House. This travel ban, blocking migrants and visitors from several new African, Asian and Middle Eastern countries, indicates that the current administration increasingly treats nationality, rather than individual conduct, as a proxy for risk.

Growing anti-migration rhetoric foreshadowed this policy. Immigration is increasingly being framed as a national security threat, which can also undermine economic stability........

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