President Donald Trump is unrolling the unwelcome mat on a far larger scale than the traval ban he imposed during his first term, according to a new report.
A report in The New York Times said 43 nations were being considered for inclusion in a multi-tiered ban under consideration by the Trump administration.
At various times during the first Trump administration, 15 nations were on different travel bans, with 13 nations being covered at the end of Trump’s first term: Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Venezuela, North Korea, Egypt, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Myanmar. Chad and Iraq had been included in earlier travel bans but were later removed.
This time around, there are three groups.
The new Trump travel ban about to go into effect pic.twitter.com/j2VHtu5h7v
— Al Carbo (@carbo_al) March 16, 2025
Citizens from the red group would be banned from entering the United States. The 11 nations in the draft policy’s red group are: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen.
The orange group includes Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan. Visa restrictions apply to citizens of these countries who want to enter the U.S. They would need to be interviewed in person to get a visa, the report said.
A 22-nation yellow list has also been developed, the report said. Those countries have what the report said were deficiencies that if not addressed would land the countries on the other lists.
The Times wrote that those issues “could include failing to share with the United States information about incoming travelers, purportedly inadequate security practices for issuing passports, or the selling of citizenship to people from banned countries, which could serve as a loophole around the restrictions.”
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The report said the draft list is currently being reviewed and could change before a final ban is announced.
Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, São Tomé and Príncipe, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe are on the yellow list.
In a Jan. 20 executive order, Trump had directed the Secretary of State, Attorney General, Secretary of Homeland Security, and Director of National Intelligence to identify “countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a partial or full suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.”
The order explained Trump’s rationale.
“To protect Americans, 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 them before their admission or entry into the United States,” the order said.
The ordered added that “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 and other threats to our national security.”
In response to the order, Democrats have drafted legislation to prevent Trump from enacting a travel ban, according to the website of Democratic Rep. Julia Chu of California.
During the presidential campaign, Trump said he would bring back his ban on allowing people from some nations into America.
“I will ban refugee resettlement from terror infested areas like the Gaza Strip, and we will seal our border and bring back the travel ban,” Trump said in September, according to Time.
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