Entries between 2006 and 2015 from the seven majority-Muslim countries that were banned by President Trump’s executive order a week ago made up 0.2%, or 904,415 out of more than 517 million total legal entries to the US, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data published on Friday. These figures do not include illegal entries or asylum seekers. Also, each person noted in the data may account for more than one entry.
The Jan. 27, 2017 Trump executive order banned most travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the US for 90 days, to give US authorities time to review security procedures used to evaluate visa applications from those countries.
According to the Pew report, 510,821 of the total legal US entries from the now banned countries between fiscal 2006 and 2015 came in on temporary, non-immigrant visas. In addition to tourists, visitors using temporary visas could also include students, businesspeople, short-term workers and diplomats.
The Pew report notes that the number of temporary visa entries from the seven countries more than tripled in nine years, rising from 25,000 in 2006 to 86,000 in 2015.
According to State Department data, annual refugee admissions from these seven countries almost doubled over the same period, from 15,237 in fiscal 2006 to 27,919 in 2015.
Refugees from Syria did not start to enter the US in large numbers until fiscal 2016, but 86% of Somalia’s 72,652 entrants from fiscal 2006 to 2015 were refugees.