‘To protect US from foreign terrorists’: Trump signs travel ban on citizens from 12 countries

The countries now barred from entry into the United States include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Additionally, the administration has imposed new restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

In a video posted on social media, Trump tied the policy to a recent terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, which he said demonstrated the need for stricter immigration controls. The suspect in that incident, a citizen of Egypt, allegedly overstayed a tourist visa, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“This is about keeping America safe,” Trump said. “I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.”

Trump cited visa overstay rates and insufficient security cooperation as key criteria behind the decision. Many of the countries targeted, he wrote in the presidential proclamation, lacked reliable systems for issuing civil documents or failed to cooperate with US authorities in vetting travellers and repatriating their citizens.

The administration drew heavily from an annual Homeland Security report on visa overstays, zeroing in on tourists, students, and business travellers who remained in the US after their visas expired.

Criticism came swiftly, especially over the inclusion of Afghanistan, where many residents had worked alongside US forces during the two-decade conflict. Though the policy exempts Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas — granted to individuals who worked closely with the US military — advocates condemned the move as a betrayal.

“To include Afghanistan — a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years — is a moral disgrace,” said Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit working to resettle Afghan allies. “It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold.”

Trump defended the decision, saying Afghanistan lacks a “competent or cooperative central authority” and citing concerns over the integrity of its civil documentation and visa overstay rates.

The inclusion of Haiti also drew sharp criticism. The Caribbean nation, facing severe political instability, gang violence, and a worsening humanitarian crisis, had not been part of the first-term travel bans. Trump’s proclamation described Haiti as lacking a functioning law enforcement structure and “sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information.”

The new ban follows a January 20 executive order directing the Departments of State and Homeland Security, along with the Director of National Intelligence, to report on what the administration called “hostile attitudes” toward the United States. The review also assessed whether travellers from certain countries posed a national security risk.

The timing of the ban, coming after Trump’s suspension of refugee resettlement earlier this year, has left thousands in limbo. Many had already sold belongings and booked travel to the US. Among them were nearly 20,000 refugees from the Republic of Congo, the largest single nationality resettled in the past fiscal year, followed by roughly 14,000 from Afghanistan.

During his first term, Trump issued a similar order in January 2017 that barred citizens from seven countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, and Yemen — from entering the US. The move, widely criticized as a “Muslim ban,” set off airport protests and legal battles that lasted months. The order was later restructured, ultimately gaining the approval of the Supreme Court in 2018.

(With inputs from AP)

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