The Trump administration is considering targeting citizens of 43 countries as part of a new ban on the United States that is wider than the restrictions imposed during President Trump's first term, according to officials familiar with the issue.
A draft list of recommendations developed by diplomats and security authorities suggests a “red” list of 11 countries that will be banned from entering the United States entirely. They are Afghanistan, Bhutan, Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen.
Discussed on condition of anonymity, officials warned that it was developed by the State Department a few weeks ago to discuss sensitive internal deliberations, and that the changes could be made before they reached the White House.
Officials from the State Department's Embassy and Regional Bureau, as well as security specialists from other departments and intelligence reporting agencies, are considering drafts. They provide comments on whether the description of defects in a particular country is accurate. Or it offers whether there are policy reasons that do not risk disruptions in cooperation on other priorities.
The draft proposal also included an “orange” list of 10 countries where travel is restricted but not blocked. In such cases, wealthy business travelers may be allowed to enter, but immigrants and those traveling on tourist visas are not allowed.
Citizens on that list will be eligible for mandatory face-to-face interviews to receive their visa. It included Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Russia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Turkmenistan.
When he took office on January 20th, Trump issued an executive order to the State Department requiring that “there are very insufficient countries to ensure partial or complete suspension of approval of citizens from those countries because of the very insufficient review and screening information.”
He gave the department 60 days to complete the White House report on that list. In other words, it's scheduled for next week. The State Department's Consular Office is taking the lead and said the order is for the office of the Judiciary and Homeland Security department and the Director of the National Intelligence Report to support the efforts.
Public relations from several agencies declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment. However, the State Department previously followed Trump's orders and refused to discuss internal deliberations specifically, saying it “is committed to protecting our country and its citizens by supporting the highest standards of national security and public safety through the visa process.”
The Times and other news outlets reported this month that although it was not part of Trump's first-term travel ban, Afghanistan, which fell to the Taliban when the US retracted its troops in 2021, is likely part of the second-term ban. However, other countries under consideration were unknown.
It is also not clear whether people with existing visas will be exempt from the ban or whether their visa will be cancelled. It is also not clear whether they will attempt to exempt existing green card holders.
Last week, the Trump administration said it had cancelled the green card for Palestinian Mahmoud Khalil, a former Syrian-born graduate student at Columbia University, as the government led a famous campus protest against Israeli war in Gaza.
Some of the countries on the draft red and orange lists were approved by Trump for his first-term travel ban, but many are new. Some characteristics are shared with previous lists. They are generally the majority of Muslims or non-white people, and have governments considered poor, weak or corrupt.
However, the reasons that included several other reasons were not immediately clear. Bhutan, for example, was proposed for an absolute ban on entry. The small Buddhist and Hindu countries are sandwiched between China and India, but neither of them were on the draft list.
The proposal to sharply limit visitors from Russia, if not entirely prohibited, raises another issue. While the Russian government has a reputation for corruption, Trump is trying to redirect US foreign policy in a more Russian-friendly direction.
The decision to include Venezuela could also disrupt the early melting of relationships that would help Trump's separate efforts to deport undocumented immigrants.
The proposal also includes a draft of a “yellow” list of 22 countries, which is given 60 days to resolve perceived defects, and includes the threat of moving to one of the other lists if they fail to comply with one of the other lists.
These include sharing with the US about incoming travelers, inadequate security practices to issue passports, or selling citizenship to people in prohibited countries.
The list is Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinanere, Gambia, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Maritania, Senton, Senton, Sancon, Santenia, Santenia, Santenia, Malawi, Malawi, Príncipe, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe.
During Trump's first term, the court prevented the government from enforcing the first two versions of the travel ban, but the Supreme Court ultimately granted one ban that banned citizens from eight countries. The list evolved later.
Soon after he became president in January 2021, Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a declaration revoking Trump's travel ban, calling it “the stain of our people's conscience” and “contradicting our long history of welcoming all faiths and non-faithful people.”
Trump's executive order in January said it would “revive the ban to protect American citizens from foreigners who commit terrorist attacks, threaten national security, support hate ideology, or intend to exploit immigration laws for malicious purposes.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Edward Wong contributed to the report from Washington.
