The United States President, Donald Trump has signed a new law on travel ban denying citizens from 12 countries from entering the United State citing national security concern. The countries that are involved in the travel ban consist of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
According to the law, it will be effective from 09th June, 2025.
Apart from the general proclamation ban, partial restrictions were also slammed on countries like Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Although, there are some exemptions, including athletes travelling for major sporting events, some Afghan nationals and dual nationals with citizenship in unaffected countries, according to the BBC.
Trump believes that his intension was to prevent individuals considered potential security risks from gaining access into the US.
In a video message posted on X handle yesterday Trump said “We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen”.
According to the white house press statement, the countries affected with the ban were deemed to have a “large-scale presence of terrorists,” poor cooperation on visa-related security measures, and inadequate systems for verifying travelers’ identities.
The administration disclosed that issues such as poor record-keeping of criminal histories and high visa overstay rates as contributing factors to this new law.
The new directive builds on Trump’s broader immigration crackdown initiated at the beginning of his second term.
On January 20, the president signed an executive order mandating stricter security checks for foreign nationals and instructing federal agencies to review which countries should face entry suspensions due to inadequate vetting procedures into the united state.
This move echoes Trump’s controversial travel ban during his first term, which initially targeted seven predominantly Muslim countries and was upheld by the US Supreme Court in 2018.
The ban was later repealed by President Joe Biden in 2021, who described it as “a stain on our national conscience.”
