US President Donald Trump has declared a travel ban, invoking national security as the rationale behind an executive order that locks out nationals from 12 countries.
Effective from June 9, the directive imposes a total travel blackout on Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
According to reports, Trump had insisted that the nations included in the ban were grossly inadequate in their ability to screen and vet their travellers, thereby posing what he described as an “extremely high risk” to American safety.
A White House statement backed this claim, asserting that these countries had failed to meet critical security benchmarks.
The announcement came just days after a disturbing incident in Colorado, where an Egyptian national reportedly set fire to peaceful demonstrators calling for the release of Israelis held in Gaza. Trump referenced the attack in his statement on Truth Social, claiming that such tragedies served as dire reminders of the perils of admitting un-vetted foreign nationals into the United States.
In a video address from the Oval Office shared on X, Trump argued that the recent terror in Boulder had exposed the grave threats America faced, asserting that the U.S. could no longer afford to accept migrants from nations incapable of reliable security cooperation. He emphasized that those who could not be safely vetted were simply unwelcome.
The latest move expands Trump’s infamous travel ban signed in January 2017. That order targeted nations such as Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen. Although President Joe Biden had rescinded the original policy in 2021, denouncing it as “a stain on our national conscience,” Trump vowed to not only bring it back but broaden its reach.
In his new proclamation, Trump listed specific grounds for the restrictions: Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled regime, Cuba and Iran’s alleged roles in state-sponsored terrorism, and the alarming visa overstay rates from nations such as Chad and Eritrea. Chad, for instance, was said to have a 49.54% overstay rate for B1/B2 visa holders, while Eritrea posted a staggering 55.43% among F, M, and J visa categories.
In addition to the blanket ban, Trump introduced partial restrictions targeting seven more countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. These nations will face limitations on both immigrant and non-immigrant visa entries—including business, tourist, student, and exchange visas—due to either high overstay rates or deficient cooperation with US enforcement agencies.
Speaking through a White House spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, the administration reaffirmed that Trump was fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from foreign actors deemed dangerous. She said on X that the president was taking decisive action to prevent those who, in his view, sought to harm the United States from ever setting foot on its soil.
Trump maintained that his objective was to restore a policy—often referred to as the “Trump travel ban”—which he claimed had kept radical Islamic terrorists out of the country. He reminded supporters that the Supreme Court had upheld the constitutionality of the original measure, and insisted it was a vital instrument in the fight to preserve national security.
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