The United States is reportedly considering a significant expansion of its travel ban to include citizens from an additional 36 countries, a move that would build upon restrictions announced earlier this month by the Trump administration.
This information comes from a State Department memo reviewed by The Washington Post.
The expanded list of nations potentially facing visa bans or other entry restrictions includes 25 African countries.
Notably, this comprises key U.S. partners such as Egypt and Djibouti. The proposed restrictions also extend to countries in the Caribbean, Central Asia, and several Pacific Island nations.
A State Department spokesperson declined to comment on internal deliberations or communications regarding the matter, and the White House has yet to respond to requests for comment.
Such a move would mark another escalation in the Trump administration’s aggressive crackdown on immigration.
The memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent Saturday to U.S. diplomats who work with the countries, said the governments of listed nations were being given 60 days to meet new benchmarks and requirements established by the State Department.
It set a deadline of 8 a.m. Wednesday for them to provide an initial action plan for meeting the requirements.
The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet.
Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from “widespread government fraud.”
Others had large numbers of citizens who overstayed their visas in the United States, the memo said.
Other reasons included the availability of citizenship by monetary investment without a requirement of residency and claims of “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States” by people from those countries.
The memo also stated that if a country was willing to accept third-country nationals who were removed from the United States or enter a “safe third country” agreement, it could mitigate other concerns.
It was not immediately clear when the proposed travel restrictions would be enforced if the demands were not met.
The countries facing scrutiny in the memo are Angola; Antigua and Barbuda; Benin; Bhutan; Burkina Faso; Cabo Verde; Cambodia; Cameroon; Democratic Republic of Congo; Djibouti; Dominica; Ethiopia; Egypt; Gabon; Gambia; Ghana; Ivory Coast; Kyrgyzstan; Liberia; Malawi; Mauritania; Niger; Nigeria; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Sao Tome and Principe; Senegal; South Sudan; Syria; Tanzania; Tonga; Tuvalu; Uganda; Vanuatu; Zambia; and Zimbabwe.
The list represents a significant expansion of a presidential proclamation issued June 4, when the United States fully restricted the entry of individuals from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
The United States also had partially restricted the entry of travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela under that order.
Democrats and other critics of the Trump administration have described its efforts to issue blanket travel bans on selected nations as xenophobic and bigoted, pointing to President Donald Trump’s efforts to block travel from Muslim-majority nations in his first term and the high number of African and Caribbean nations targeted during this term.
Early in his first term, Trump attempted to restrict travel from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen and Libya. The initial version of the ban caused confusion and chaos at airports.
It faced numerous legal challenges until the Supreme Court upheld the third version of it in June 2018.
While the travel ban was rescinded under the Biden administration, Trump repeatedly pledged to reinstate it on the campaign trail, stating it would be “bigger than before.”
On Inauguration Day, the White House issued an executive order calling on U.S. agencies, including the State Department, to look for “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.”
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