U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday expanded the list of countries subject to a total travel ban to now include seven new nations, including Syria, in addition to people with Palestinian National Authority documents.
The president made the decision following an attack in November by an Afghan asylum seeker against two members of the National Guard in Washington, in which one of them was killed.
Trump extends travel ban
In an executive order, Trump justified the measure on national security grounds and ordered a complete restriction on the entry into the United States of citizens from Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Syria.
The provision also vetoes the entry of persons using travel documents issued or endorsed by the Palestinian National Authority.
The Trump Administration had already denied visas to Palestinian officials scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in September.
The President also imposed partial restrictions on citizens of 15 other countries: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Last June, Trump had already decreed a total veto for nationals of 12 countries that remain on the list: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Partial restrictions previously imposed on Burundi, Cuba, Togo and Venezuela are also maintained.
With the expansion, a total of 19 countries are subject to a total ban on travel to the United States, in addition to the Palestinian National Authority, while 19 others face partial restrictions.
“The restrictions and limitations imposed by this proclamation are, in my judgment, necessary to prevent the entry or admission of foreign nationals about whom the U.S. Government lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose to the country,” Trump’s order sets out.
The National Guardsmen’s alleged attacker, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan who arrived in asylum in the United States in 2021 after cooperating with the CIA in Afghanistan, pleaded not guilty to the charges he faces.
With information from EFE
