United States President Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning travel from 12 countries and imposing stricter restrictions on citizens of seven more, the White House announced.
The banned countries are Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Heightened restrictions will apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Trump said in the order:
I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.
The order takes effect on Monday, June 9, 2025, at 04:01 GMT. Visas issued before this date will remain valid.
In a White House video, Trump linked the ban to a recent attack at a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, saying it showed the dangers of letting in foreign nationals who are not properly vetted.
He also claimed there are “millions” of undocumented immigrants in the US. Trump said:
We will not let what happened in Europe happen to America… very simply, 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.
We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm.
In 2017, during his first term, Trump issued a similar travel ban targeting seven mostly Muslim countries. After legal challenges, a revised version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
The original bans affected tourists, students, businesspeople, and others, often preventing them from boarding flights or detaining them at US airports.
On Wednesday, 04 June 2025, Trump signed another order to suspend entry for foreign nationals seeking to study or participate in programs at Harvard University, accusing the school of “concerning foreign ties and radicalism.”
The order instructs the State Department to consider revoking visas of current Harvard students who meet certain criteria.
More: Al Jazeera
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