White House press secretary Sean Spicer said Sunday that the seven countries from which President Trump has temporarily halted immigration were flagged as “countries of particular concern” by his predecessor.
“The Obama administration put these first and foremost and said that these countries need to have further travel restrictions based on the intelligence that we have,” Spicer told ABC’s Martha Raddatz.
The temporary ban applies to Iranian, Iraqi, Libyan, Sudanese, Yemeni, Syrian and Somalian nationals seeking to enter the United States.
“Those were identified by the previous administration,” Spicer said. “There were further travel restrictions already in place from those seven countries.”
He continued: “What the president did was take the first step through this executive order of ensuring that we’re looking at the entire system of who’s coming in, refugees that are coming in, people who are coming in from places that have a history or that our intelligence suggests that we need to have further extreme vetting for.”
Trump has faced intense criticism for his latest executive order on immigration, which also includes a 120-day suspension of the Syrian refugee program.
Spicer said the administration is “working through all the diplomatic channels necessary” to ensure that other countries understand that the purpose of the ban is to protect Americans until “extreme vetting” measures have been implemented.
