President Donald Trump signed a declaration Wednesday that bans citizens from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Haiti and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, from entering the United States, framing travel bans as needed to strengthen one of his first term’s most controversial policies.
“I have directed the Secretary of State to coordinate with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to identify countries that are incredibly scarce to ensure a full or partial suspension of hospitalizations of citizens from those countries because of the very lack of review and screening information.”
Trump has banned 12 US citizens from entering the United States, including Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
According to Trump’s declaration, some of the countries on the list of banned countries have refused to regularly accept citizens’ return, or were deemed “unacceptable” by the administration, with visa overstay rates indicating “a blatant disregard for the US immigration law.”
Others on the list, such as Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, were included due to insufficient screening and screening measures.
Seven additional countries received entrances into the country, including Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, although their entrances to the country were suspended under several visa programs.
Travel restrictions are scheduled to come into effect at 12:01am Eastern daylight time on June 9, 2025.
