Donald Trump has announced a travel ban on 12 countries from entering the United States on Wednesday, a key policy resurrected from his first term as president.
Taking effect just after midnight on Monday, the ban will see citizens from 12 countries including Afghanistan, Iran, Libya and Haiti banned from entering the US, with tightened restrictions on seven more countries.
In a video posted on social media, Trump said: “We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm.
“We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States.”
He linked to new ban to Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying the move “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted” including temporary visitors and those who overstay their visas.
The suspect in the Boulder attack is from Egypt, a country not included on Trump’s travel list. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says he overstayed a tourist visa.
The affected countries are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, The Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen
There is also expected to be tighter restrictions on people entering from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Delaying the ban until after the weekend is seen as a cushion to avoid chaos that airports which unfolded during the president’s first travel ban in 2017.
The ban contains some exemptions, such as athletes travelling for major sporting events, Afghan nationals holding Special Immigrant Visas, as well as “minorities facing persecution in Iran.”
Trump blamed “deficient” screening and a refusal by the countries to take back its own citizens as reasons why the ban has been reintroduced, relying heavily on data from the DHS which reports on overstayed tourists, business and student visas.
Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas are exempt from the ban but the inclusion of the country on the list has angered supporters who have worked to re-settle Afghans.
Around 14,000 Afghan refugees arrived in the 12 months through to September 2024 with Trump suspending refugee resettlement in his first day in office.
Shawn Van Diver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac, said: “To include Afghanistan, a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years, is a moral disgrace.
“It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold.”
Iran’s government, which Trump has called a “state sponsor of terrorism,” has not reacted to the ban so far, which bans visitors but not those already holding visas in the US.
Haiti, which avoided the travel ban during Trump’s first term, was also included for high overstay rates and large numbers who came to the US illegally.
Haitians continue to flee poverty, hunger and political instability, while police and a UN-backed mission fight a surge in gang violence.
Other nations on the list such as Libya, Sudan and Yemen, all face ongoing civil strife. The Sudanese civil war has been ongoing since 2023, while Yemen’s government has been battling Houthi rebels for over a decade.
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