President Donald Trump has announced widespread bans and restrictions for visitors from 19 countries while simultaneously issuing a chilling warning that Egypt could be next.
Nationals of Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen will be barred from entering the United States under the new order, which goes into effect on June 9.
Citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will be partially restricted from traveling, removing access to all immigrant visas and several non-immigrant travel options.
Trump also issued a warning that Egypt could soon join the no-fly list in the wake of the Colorado terror attack in which an Egyptian national who overstayed his visa allegedly set fire to pro-Israel demonstrators.
‘We don’t want ’em,’ Trump said bluntly in a video released shortly after the ban was announced.
‘Very simply, we cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen.’
Mohamed Soliman, the Egyptian national suspect charged with firebombing pro-Israel demonstrators, was residing in the US illegally with his wife and five children.
The president has directed several of his top national security chiefs to investigate whether Egypt should also be added to the list of restricted nations.
‘In light of recent events, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, shall provide me an update to the review of the practices and procedures of Egypt,’ he wrote in a Wednesday proclamation.
Trump said he hopes their efforts will ‘confirm the adequacy of its current screening and vetting capabilities.’
He said the tragedy in Boulder ‘underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted.
‘We’ve seen one terror attack after another from foreign visa overstayers… thanks to Biden’s open door policies today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.’
Several of the nations facing bans have been targeted because their screening and vetting capabilities are not up to the president’s standards, putting Egypt on high alert.
Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Sudan and Yemen were all placed on the banned list in part due to limited screening and vetting measures, Trump noted.
White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson wrote on X: ‘President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm.
‘These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information.
‘President Trump will ALWAYS act in the best of interest of the American people and their safety.’
During his first term in office, Trump announced a ban on travelers from seven majority-Muslim nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, repealed the ban in 2021, calling it ‘a stain on our national conscience.’
But Trump touted the successes of his initial 2017 travel bans in his proclamation.
‘During my first Administration, I restricted the entry of foreign nationals into the United States, which successfully prevented national security threats from reaching our borders and which the Supreme Court upheld,’ the president wrote.
‘It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.
‘The United States must be vigilant during the visa-issuance process to ensure that those aliens approved for admission into the United States do not intend to harm Americans or our national interests.
‘More importantly, the United States must identify such aliens before their admission or entry into the United States.
‘The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.’
Trump said the list is ‘subject to revision’ if nations work toward improving the vetting system of their nationals.
Similarly, other nations can be added to the list if Trump later believes they pose a risk to national security.
But as it stands, the nations included on the list have disappointed Trump in various ways, either by having a high rate of nationals who overstay their visas or by limiting the United States’ access to security data.
The primary concern for Iranian nationals is that the government ‘is a state sponsor of terrorism.’
In that instance, Trump argued ‘Iran regularly fails to cooperate with the United States Government in identifying security risks, is the source of significant terrorism around the world, and has historically failed to accept back its removable nationals.’
Similarly, the inclusion of Somalia comes after ‘The United States Government identified Somalia as a terrorist safe haven.
‘Terrorists use regions of Somalia as safe havens from which they plan, facilitate, and conduct their operations.’
Haitian nationals, Trump argued, have a higher likelihood of trying to overstay their visas.
‘Additionally, hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden Administration,’ the president said.
‘This influx harms American communities by creating acute risks of increased overstay rates, establishment of criminal networks, and other national security threats.’
During the run-up to the election, thousands of Haitian migrants who had moved to Springfield, Ohio drew the ire of President Trump, who claimed that some of them were even eating pets.
Eritrea, for example, has been included on the list because ‘the United States questions the competence of the central authority for issuance of passports or civil documents in Eritrea.’
Trump wrote: ‘Criminal records are not available to the United States for Eritrean nationals. Eritrea has historically refused to accept back its removable nationals.’
Trump added that ‘many of these countries have also taken advantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals.’
Trump said the decision was made in collaboration with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency John Ratcliffe.
For the seven nations who have had their access to the United States severely restricted, Trump has clarified that authorities will no longer accept any immigrant visa applications.
Additionally, a host of nonimmigrant visa options will be revoked, and those that remain will have ‘reduced validity… to the extent permitted by law.’
Looking ahead to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, Trump has already added a clause in his proclamation which states: ‘Any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event’ will be exempt.