Congressional Democrats' fresh push against Trump travel ban

Washington, April 11 (IANS) Congressional Democrats are making a fresh push to repeal US President Donald Trump's travel ban that predominantly targets Muslim-majority countries, the media reported.

The No Ban Act, introduced on Wednesday by Senator Chris Coons in the Senate and Representative Judy Chu in the House, aims to repeal all three versions of the travel ban enacted by the Trump administration, amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of religion, and limit the power of presidents to institute such bans in the future, reports CNN.

"Right now, there are thousands of American citizens who are forced to live apart from their spouses, whose children will never know their grandparents, and who are denied the opportunity to celebrate milestones with loved ones because of the President's discriminatory Muslim ban that does not make us safer," Coons said in a statement. 

"This ban is family separation by another name. It is a stain on America's reputation around the world that runs counter to our values and is hurting real people."

Since taking office, Trump has signed three executive orders creating some form of travel ban primarily targeting Muslim countries. 

The first two versions were blocked in court, but the third version, which placed varying levels of restrictions on foreign nationals from Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Syria, Venezuela, Somalia and Yemen, was upheld by the Supreme Court last year.

The law sparked the rejection of more than 37,000 visa applications in 2018.

Although the No Ban Act has little chance of gaining approval by the Republican-controlled Senate, it has been sponsored by 32 Democrats in the Senate and 63 in the House. 

No Republicans sponsored the legislation in either chamber.

The House Judiciary Committee will hold hearings on the bill in June.