One of the first acts of President Donald Trump was to issue a travel ban, preventing anyone from 7 named Mulsim countries from entering the United States for 90 days. The countries are Syria, Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia. This Executive Order aims to protect the United States from terrorist acts by people from those countries. However, many people, companies and organizations have openly expressed their opposition to this travel ban.
Though a federal judge blocked the ban with a restraining order, there is quite a lot of uncertainty as to what can and can't be done. Amidst that uncertainty, businesses that operate internationally, like the NBA, have to try to maintain their operations. According to Sports Illustrated, about 29% of the NBA players are foreign born and some are only one Employment-based Immigration Visas. This means that if those players leave the country during the ban, they may experience some problems when coming back in.
The two most affected players would have to be Thon Maker of the Milwaukee Bucks and Loul Deng of the Los Angeles Lakers. Both these players are from Wau, South Sudan and while South Sudan is independent from Sudan, the uncertainty of the travel ban may cause problems. The league even went so far as to clarify the travel ban for games in Canada, which the NBA regularly has as one of the teams is based in Toronto as per CBS Sports.
Players have also expressed their sentiment towards the travel ban, as per NBA.com, Dennis Schroeder of the Atlanta Hawks who comes from a practicing Mulsim family said "It's unnecessary, People who are born and raised here, it doesn't matter whether it's Sudan or somewhere else, it it's a Muslim, I don't get why he want them out of here." However, the League and the rest of the World can only wait until the courts decide on the final outcome of Trump's travel ban.
