President Trump signed a proclamation to ban travel from certain countries on Wednesday evening, citing national security risks, administration officials told CBS News.
The ban will be targeted at specific countries, but will allow for exceptions. It takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.
Mr. Trump’s proclamation fully restricts and limits the entry of nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, the officials said.
It partially restricts the entry of people from seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm. These commonsense restrictions are country-specific and include places that lack proper vetting, exhibit high visa overstay rates, or fail to share identity and threat information. President Trump will always act in the best of interest of the American people and their safety,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told CBS News.
Officials said the action is due to a high level of risk to the United States.
Exceptions allowed under the new travel ban will be for lawful permanent residents, adoptions, dual nationals traveling on a passport from an unrestricted country, Afghan Special Immigrant Visas, foreign nationals traveling on diplomatic, U.N. or NATO visas; athletes or members of athletic teams, including coaches and support staff, and athletes traveling for the World Cup, Olympics or other sporting events; immediate family member immigrant visas, Special Immigrant Visas for U.S. government employees, immigrant visas for ethnic and religious minorities in Iran, and other national interest exceptions, officials said.
The announcement of the ban follows the attack Sunday in Boulder, Colorado, on marchers raising attention for Israelis taken hostage by Hamas.
In his first term, soon after he took office in January 2017, Mr. Trump signed a travel ban restricting entry by most residents of seven countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. In March 2017, he removed Iraq from the list and added Chad, Venezuela and North Korea. In 2020, he added immigration restrictions against Nigeria, Eritrea, Sudan, Tanzania, Myanmar and Kyrgyzstan. Chad was later removed from the list.
The first-term travel bans were challenged in court, and were altered by the administration. The third and current version of the ban was issued in the fall of 2017 and ultimately upheld by the Supreme Court in the summer of 2018, with the conservative justices citing the president’s broad authority to restrict the entry of foreigners on national security grounds.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez
contributed to this report.
