The Trump administration is not just trying to limit illegal immigration, but is aggressively trying to clamp down on asylum seekers and legal immigration. There are exceptions, such as its welcoming of White South African farmers as refugees, but it’s a consistent theme. Now — in a policy that expands on one of his first-term hallmarks — the president announced a travel ban for citizens of 12 countries and severe restrictions on those from seven others.

The president used as an excuse the horrific recent attack in Boulder, Colorado, in which an Egyptian citizen who had overstayed his visa firebombed people demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages. But as the Associated Press reported, Egypt was not on the list of banned or restricted countries. The president isn’t wrong that many of those countries—such as the Republic of Congo, Yemen, Somalia, Iran and Haiti—lack adequate vetting procedures, but it’s wrong to impose a ban on everyone.

Take Afghanistan. Although the ban includes an exception for those who worked closely with the U.S. government during the war there, it still seems unjust as most of the Afghanis coming here supported our country but don’t qualify for special visas. As CNN reported, “Thousands of Afghans have already been left in limbo by cuts to services and offices intended to help them apply for visas.” Many view this as a betrayal.

Blanket travel and immigration bans are an affront to the concept of the open interaction of individuals that’s inherent in a free society. The administration’s rationale is lacking, as it won’t release any evidence that its ban will protect the American people.

Most of the listed countries are known for human-rights abuses, but as George Mason University Law Professor Ilya Somin explained in Reason, “migrants from many of these countries … are fleeing horrific poverty and oppression by communist, radical Islamist and other authoritarian regimes.” He questioned shutting “America’s doors to their victims.”

It’s sad to see our generally open country, known for welcoming the world’s tired and poor, turn into something of a fortress state.