Trump campaigns on bringing back Muslim ban, raising concerns for refugee programme

Former US President Donald Trump said he would bring back the Muslim ban "even bigger than before" if he were to be elected again.

Trump made the remarks while campaigning in Iowa for the 2024 Republican presidential primary, quickly raising concerns of rights advocates, who are familiar with the long-lasting impact of his original ban, which he ordered for from several Muslim-majority countries as an executive order on his first day in office.

"What Trump did was that he really dismantled the refugee and asylum programme," Wa’el Alzayat, CEO of the advocacy group Emgage Action, told The New Arab. 

"They obviously rejected applications, and then that created a huge backlog. Now, there are people reapplying and applying for the first time. It's taking time to re-establish, restaff and re-source the programme. This is causing major delays, with some people waiting for years" he said.

"The important thing is that we're now two years into the Biden administration, and Trump is still threatening to get back to the ban. If he does, he may do permanent damage, and he may effectively destroy the asylum and refugee programme for good."

In December 2015, six months after he announced his intention to run for president, Trump said that if he were elected president, he wanted "a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."