Donald Trumps first travel ban in 2017 had an immediate explosive impact spawning chaos at airports nationwide This time around the panic and chaos was already widespread by the time the president signed his proclamation Wednesday to fully or partially restrict foreign nationals from 19 countries from entering the United States Since being sworn in for his second term Trump has unleashed a barrage of draconian immigration restrictions Within hours of taking office the president suspended the asylum system at the southern border as part of his wideranging immigration crackdown His administration has ended temporary legal residency for 211000 Haitians 117000 Venezuelans and 110000 Cubans and moved to revoke temporary protected status for several groups of immigrants It has moved to restrict student visas and root out scholars who have come to the US legally Its death by 1000 cuts said Faisal AlJuburi of the Texasbased legal nonprofit Raices which was among several immigrants rights groups that challenged Trumps first travel ban And thats kind of the point Its creating layers and layers of restrictions Trumps first travel ban in January 2017 issued days after he took office targeted the predominantly Muslim countries of Iraq Syria Iran Sudan Libya Somalia and Yemen The order came as a shock including to many administration officials Customs and Border Protection officials were initially given little guidance on how to enact the ban Lawyers and protesters rushed to international airports where travellers were stuck in limbo Confusion spread through colleges and tech companies in the US and refugee camps across the world This time Trumps travel ban came as no surprise He had cued up the proclamation in an executive order signed on 20 January his first day back in the White House instructing his administration to submit a list of candidates for a ban by 21 March Though he finally signed a proclamation enacting the ban on Wednesday it will not take effect until 9 June allowing border patrol officers and travellers a few days to prepare The ban includes several exemptions including for people with visas who are already in the United States greencard holders dual citizens and athletes or coaches traveling to the US for major sporting events such as the World Cup or the Olympics It also exempts Afghans eligible for the special immigrant visa program for those who helped the US during the war in Afghanistan But the policy which is likely to face legal challenges will undoubtedly once again separate families and disproportionately affect people seeking refuge from humanitarian crises This is horrible to be clear and its still something that reeks of arbitrary racism and xenophobia AlJuburi said But this does not yield the type of chaos that January 2017 yielded because immigration overall has been upended to such a degree that the practice of immigration laws is in a state of chaos In his second term Trump has taken unprecedented steps to tear down legal immigration He has eliminated the legal status of thousands of international students and instructed US embassies worldwide to stop scheduling visa interviews as it prepares to ramp up social media vetting for international scholars The administration has arrested people at immigration checkins exiled asylum seekers to a notorious megaprison in El Salvador and detained scholars and travellers at airports without reason Although Trumps travel ban excludes greencard holders his Department of Homeland Security has made clear that it can and will revoke green cards as it sees fit including in the cases of student activists Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi The first Muslim ban was very targeted it was brutal it was immediate and it was massive said Nihad Awad the executive director at the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations Now the administration is not only targeting nations with certain religious affiliations but also people of color overall people who criticise the US government for its funding of the genocide in Gaza And this new travel ban comes as many families are still reeling and recovering from Trumps first ban Were looking at essentially a ban being in place potentially for eight out of 12 years said Ryan Costello policy director at the National Iranian American Council And even in that period where the Biden administration lifted the ban it was still very hard for Iranians to get a visa Iranian Americans who came to the US fleeing political persecution back home who couldnt return to Iran have in some cases been unable to see their parents siblings or other loved ones for years You want your parents to be able to come for the birth of a child or to come to your wedding Costello said So this is a really hard moment for so many families And I think unfortunately theres much more staying power for this ban Experts say the new ban is more likely to stand up to legal challenges as his first ban It also doesnt appear to have registered the same intense shock and outrage culturally The first time we saw this immediate backlash protests at airports said Costello Now over time Trump has normalized this