A leaked White House memo outlines a controversial plan to impose travel bans on 41 countries, with partial suspensions for 26 others unless security protocols improve, Reuters reports.
Reuters has seen an internal memo and persons familiar with the situation that indicate the Trump administration is contemplating imposing broad travel restrictions on nationals of a number of countries as a new ban.
The document categorizes the 41 nations it contains into three distinct groupings. Ten nations would be subject to a complete visa ban, including North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Syria, and Afghanistan.
The second set of nations would be subject to partial suspensions that would affect various types of immigrant visas, including those for tourists and students, with a few exceptions. These countries are South Sudan, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, and Myanmar.
The third group consists of 26 nations that might face a partial suspension of U.S. visa issuance if their governments fail to fix flaws within 60 days. These nations include Belarus, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan, among others.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other administration officials have not yet authorized the list, according to an anonymous US official who warned that it could be subject to revisions.
This is reminiscent of Trump’s travel ban, which had multiple revisions before being affirmed by the Supreme Court in 2018, and which he implemented during his first term. The restriction included seven nations with Muslim majorities.
To identify potential dangers to national security, President Trump signed an executive order on January 20 mandating stricter screening procedures for all foreign nationals applying for entry to the United States.
The order mandated that by March 21, a number of cabinet members must present a list of nations whose screening and vetting data is so inadequate that travel to or from those countries should be partially or entirely prohibited.
The immigration crackdown that Trump began at the beginning of his second term includes this order.
During a speech he gave in October 2023, outlining his plan, he promised to limit travel from terrorist-affiliated countries such as the Gaza Strip, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen.
Reuters’ request for response went unanswered by the State Department for the time being.
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