By Jack Phillips
Contributing Writer
The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to ban travel from nationals from five new countries while imposing limits on others.
President Donald Trump ordered “full restrictions and entry limitations” on Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria, according to a fact sheet released by the White House. The reason for the ban is due to a recent analysis.
Tuesday’s proclamation also adds similar restrictions and limitations on people who hold travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority, the political entity that controls parts of the Israeli West Bank and used to control Gaza.
Two countries, Laos and Sierra Leone, were subject to partial travel restrictions earlier this year. The new order now imposes full restrictions and entry limitations from citizens of those countries, said the White House.
Earlier this year, full restrictions were placed on Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, which are still in effect.
Partial restrictions will also remain in effect from Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela, the administration said Tuesday.
Meanwhile, 15 more countries were newly added to the partial restriction and entry limitation list. They include Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the White House said.
One country, Turkmenistan, was removed from the administration’s travel ban list because officials from the landlocked Central Asian state had “engaged productively” and also demonstrated progress in the months after it was added to the list, the White House said.
“This new proclamation lifts the ban on its nonimmigrant visas, while maintaining the suspension of entry for Turkmen nationals as immigrants,” according to the fact sheet.
People who hold lawful permanent resident status, or green cards, as well as people with existing visas, certain visa categories such as diplomats and athletes, and people who can enter because it is within the national interest of the United States are exempt from the proclamation.
The White House also signaled Tuesday that the action would limit certain visa exemptions from family members of immigrants that may demonstrate the risk of fraud.
The Trump administration said in its announcement of the expanded travel ban that a number of the countries from which it was restricting travel experience “widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records,” making it more difficult to screen citizens before they enter the United States.
Some countries also had high rates of people overstaying their visas, refused to take back their citizens, or had “a general lack of stability and government control” due to terrorism or criminal activity, the fact sheet also said.
As an example, the White House noted that one of the countries that was added to the full travel ban list, Burkina Faso, has terrorist activity throughout the country. Nationals from the West African nation also saw a relatively high visa overstay rate and has historically refused to accept back nationals who were removed from the United States, it added.
Mali and Niger were also flagged by the administration as being countries with significant terrorist activity, while South Sudan was flagged for having visa overstay issues. Syria, the White House said, is working in coordination with the U.S. government to reemerge from years of civil war but lacks “adequate central authority” to vet its nationals.
