More than two years after the United States imposed temporary travel restrictions on citizens from certain Muslim-majority countries, governments around the world are welcoming Americans back.
International travel expert Andrea Winn said in a FOX News exclusive that since then, travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are asked to show an I.D. when they’re being denied entry to the United States, and when citizens are denied entry to the United States those I.D. cards are not accepted as identification by other countries.
Winn said if a country does not accept the I.D. card, if it doesn’t want to trust its own citizens to come back and fly into their airports, the nations are not welcoming them back.
“We have a country whose currency we trade with and a country where we’ve been working for 25 years building up our commercial, banking and transport and energy relationship with,” Winn said. “So it’s just not a practical or ethical thing for us to have to tell our traveling partners we simply can’t process them into this country.”
“Because it’s about U.S. sovereignty, it’s about our country’s right to decide which countries we allow into our communities,” Winn said.
The Emirates airline, for example, allows citizens from those countries to fly on its aircraft, but many are not welcome to use their I.D. cards to get through security. The same is true at British Airways.
Winn said many others are encouraging Americans to simply keep traveling to their airports and stay away, but they’re offering waivers for those with I.D. cards from those seven countries.
She said Americans should go ahead and understand they’re still welcome in those countries.
“Because you are welcome, and you are welcome to come back and see how different countries are welcoming America,” Winn said.
More than 500,000 people from the seven nations have been cleared to enter the United States since the restriction was first imposed in January 2016.
Click here to watch the full interview with Andrea Winn on FOX Business.