President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation fully restricting nationals from 12 countries to enter the United States, along with seven other countries from which travel is partially restricted.
The highly anticipated travel ban stems from one of Trump’s executive orders from the first day of his current term, from which “national security agencies engaged in a robust assessment of the risk that countries posed to the United States,” according to the proclamation. That assessment looked at countries that have “inadequate screening and vetting processes,” that have a high rate of visa overstays, that do not cooperate in immigration vetting and/or that “have a significant terrorist presence,” the proclamation said.
The 12 countries from which entry is fully restricted are: Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The seven countries with partial restrictions—which include immigrants and nonimmigrants on business B-1, B2 and B-1/B-2 visas—include Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The ban “includes exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories and individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests,” according to the proclamation.
The proclamation said the new travel ban “builds on” the travel ban from Trump’s first term, which restricted citizens from seven largely Muslim countries from entry into the U.S. Five of those countries—Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen—were included in Wednesday’s ban as well, and two others, Iraq and Syria, were not. While the 2017 travel ban faced several legal challenges, it ultimately was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, which makes successful legal challenges less likely this time.
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