The Trump administration announced an expansion of its travel ban to over 30 countries following the November 26 shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, by an Afghan national.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed the expansion of the June travel ban, which originally restricted 19 countries from partially or entirely sending their citizens to the US.
“I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30. And the president is continuing to evaluate countries,” Noem said.
Noem told Fox News, “If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States?”
DHS has not yet disclosed which additional countries will be included or when the new restrictions will take effect.
Previous restrictions
The existing ban fully restricted travel from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Partial restrictions applied to Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services also imposed a hold on green card and citizenship applications for people from these 19 countries and announced a pause on “all pending asylum applications, regardless of the alien’s country of nationality.”
Trigger: DC shooting
The heightened travel restrictions come after the attack on two West Virginia National Guard troops in Washington, DC. The assailant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who arrived under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, fatally shot Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically injured Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24.
Lakanwal faces charges of murder, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, and assault with intent to kill while armed.
