Click to expand Image Afghani evacuee Israr, 26, shows photos on his phone of himself working in Afghanistan as a translator with military forces at his new apartment in Charlestown, Massachusetts, February 21, 2022. © 2022 Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images Have you ever been shut out or denied something based solely on your group identity? That is the essence of discrimination; a deeply dehumanizing disregard for individuality, reducing your personal value to a generic category.On Thursday, the United States Supreme Court unanimously reiterated in Ames v. Ohio that the US Civil Rights Act “focuses on individuals rather than groups, barring discrimination against ‘any individual’ because of protected characteristics.”Yet the same day, President Donald Trump rolled out a new “travel ban” on 12 nationality groups, barring US entry to nationals of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and partially restricting entry for nationals of another seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.While this version of the travel ban is worded more carefully than the ham-fisted “Muslim ban” of the first Trump administration, making its biases less obvious, it nevertheless bears the hallmarks of prejudice and malice. Scan the list of countries above and recall the Oval Office meeting Trump held with US Senators during his first term when he said the United States should accept more immigrants from places like Norway rather than Haiti and “shithole countries” in Africa.As someone who has worked on behalf of refugees for four decades, I can attest that people are not defined by their nationality. In fact, it is often dissent from ruling governments and majority cultures that compels individuals to leave their places of birth to seek freedom and restart their lives in foreign places. The United States has traditionally been receptive to the individuality of Cubans, Afghans, Eritreans, Iranians, and the others on the banned list, recognizing that they are not defined by the societies that oppress them or otherwise compel them to leave. In fact, the US refugee resettlement program—now cancelled for all refugees worldwide except white South Africans—carefully vetted many individuals from these countries, many of whom are now US citizens who will no longer be able to reunite with family members, even for merely a visit.The President, indeed, has wide discretion to decide who is and isn’t allowed to enter the US. This power, however, does not justify its abuse on spurious grounds.