Reviving one of the most controversial policies of his first term, U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that, starting June 9, entry into the United States will be banned for people from 12 countries, citing the need to “protect national security.” The list is made up mostly of citizens from African and Middle Eastern countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Haiti, the troubled Caribbean nation, has also been added to the list.
Trump also announced a partial entry ban for nationals from a variety of other regions around the world: Burundi, Sierra Leone, Togo (Africa); Turkmenistan, Laos (Asia); and in the Americas, Venezuela and Cuba.
Civil rights organizations have criticized the measure, denouncing it as discriminatory and harmful to families already living in the United States. The new policy recalls the controversial 2017 “Muslim ban,” which was initially blocked by multiple courts, then partially modified, and eventually upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018 before being repealed by the Biden administration.
In a video message recorded from the Oval Office, Trump referred to last weekend’s attack in Boulder, Colorado, where Mohamed Sabry Soliman is accused of throwing firebombs at a rally in support of Israeli hostages, injuring 12 people. Soliman is an Egyptian national who entered the U.S. in 2022 on a visa that later expired. In the meantime, immigration authorities have arrested his wife and their five children.
The Boulder attack, Trump stated, “has underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted” He added that “The strength of the restrictions we’re applying depends on the severity of the threat posed. The list is subject to revision based on whether material improvements are made, and likewise new countries can be added as threats emerge around the world.”
Trump had already foreshadowed the ban in an executive order signed on January 20, his first day back in the White House, directing his administration to present a list of candidate countries for the ban by March 21.
Civil rights groups continue to voice strong opposition to the move, arguing it discriminates based on ethnicity and that it risks—just as in Trump’s first term—separating families. The bans affecting Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela are seen as especially sensitive due to the impact on U.S. communities with large immigrant populations from those countries.
On Wednesday, Trump also announced he would block entry into the U.S. for international students bound for Harvard University, the world’s top-ranked school, with which he is now in open conflict—a move the university has called “illegal.” In addition, the president urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to explore revoking the existing visas of Harvard students already in the country.
