Trump admin implements swath of visa restrictions for dozens of countries

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

The Trump administration has implemented a swath of visa restrictions citing national security threats, human rights abuses and illegal immigration.

After National Guard troops were shot in Washington, D.C., the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced they suspended entry to foreign nationals from 19 countries whose “entry would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.” They include Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.

However, the ban is retroactive to June and restrictions for these countries were already in place since June, in accordance with an executive order President Donald Trump issued.

The order directed federal agencies to review vetting and screening capabilities and information sharing policies with other countries. They also reviewed country-specific risk factors, including countries’ terrorist presence, visa-overstay rate and cooperation with accepting back their citizens the U.S. wants to remove.

The order directed federal agencies to identify foreign nationals before they are admitted into the U.S. and to determine that those who were already admitted “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security.”

Cabinet members made recommendations and, in June, Trump then implemented full entry restrictions for immigrants and nonimmigrants from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Partial restrictions were also implemented for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

The State Department is continuing to announce new visa restrictions, citing a range of human rights abuses, including religious persecution, supporting gangs and foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs), and facilitating human trafficking and illegal immigration.

This week it restricted Nigerian government officials and anyone engaged in religious freedom violations, as well as their family members, who’ve enabled or supported genocide of Nigerian Christians. The move comes after Trump and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called out Nigerian leaders for their alleged complicity.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a country of particular concern [CPC] but that is the least of it,” Trump said, The Center Square reported.

The State Department said, “the United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries.”

It also imposed restrictions on Haitian government officials, individuals and their family members who provide financial or material support to gangs and other criminal organizations. “The Haitian people have had enough with gang violence, destruction, and political infighting,” the department said. “The Trump Administration will promote accountability for those who continue to destabilize Haiti and our region.”

It also revoked visas, and is taking steps to impose visa restrictions on Mexican executives and senior officials of transportation companies that “knowingly provided travel services designed primarily” to facilitate human smuggling and illegal immigration.

This is after a federal investigation found that minors were being smuggled from the Caribbean and other regions to Central America and into Mexico to illegally enter the U.S., it said.

The State Department is also taking similar measures against Nicaraguan owners, executives and senior officials of transportation companies, travel agencies and tour operators that assist foreign nationals with illegal entry into the U.S.

Federal investigators also found that Nicaraguan companies, “enabled by the Nicaraguan dictatorship’s permissive-by-design migration policies,” worked to “destabilize the region and push illegal immigration to the United States,” the department said. It’s “revoking currently valid visas and imposing other restrictions to ensure these individuals cannot enter the United States.”

The visa revocations and restrictions are part of a larger effort to identify individuals and entities that undermine U.S. national security and immigration laws and hold accountable “those who seek to profit from illegal immigration, disrupting smuggling networks, and protecting the integrity of U.S. borders,” it says.