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President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded a travel ban by adding five more countries and imposing limits on others.
The move came as the Trump administration continues to tighten U.S. entry requirements and immigration standards.
“The restrictions and limitations imposed by the Proclamation are necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose, garner cooperation from foreign governments, enforce our immigration laws, and advance other important foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives,” the proclamation states.
Through his actions on Tuesday, citizens from five countries – Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria, as well as individuals holding Palestinian-Authority-issued travel documents – will face a ban on travel to the United States, the White House said. In addition, existing partial bans on Laos and Sierra Leone were expanded into full suspensions of entry.
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Another 15 countries – Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe – will face partial restrictions.
The proclamation also “narrows broad family-based immigrant visa carve-outs that carry demonstrated fraud risks, while preserving case-by-case waivers,” the White House said.
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In its announcement, the Trump administration said many of the countries on the travel ban suffer from “widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records, and nonexistent birth-registration systems,” which makes it difficult to perform accurate vetting. Others refuse to share law-enforcement data, while others permit “Citizenship-by-Investment schemes that conceal identity and bypass vetting requirements and travel restrictions.”
In June, Trump announced a U.S. entry ban on citizens of 12 countries – Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen – while also tightening restrictions on others: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Tuesday’s decision follows the arrest of an Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard soldiers in Washington D.C. over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
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At the time of the killing, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Rahmanullah Lakanwal was one of the many unvetted Afghans who were mass paroled into the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome under the Biden administration.
Lakanwal is accused of shooting U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who later died, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who is recovering.
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