Trump administration plans to expand travel ban to 30 countries
The Trump administration is preparing to broaden its existing travel restrictions to include roughly 30 countries, following the fatal shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington last week, reports a Qazinform News Agency correspondent.
Several officials confirmed to US media that the proposal is still under review, though an announcement is expected soon.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who met President Donald Trump on Monday, urged him to impose what she described as “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
She wrote on X that “our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom, not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS.”
The move follows the attack allegedly carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the country in 2021 and received asylum this April. The administration has since halted visa services for Afghan passport holders, paused all asylum decisions, and ordered a review of more than 720 thousand green card files from 19 countries already subject to restrictions.
The updated measures would expand a proclamation issued this summer, which imposed full or partial entry limits on nationals of Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as partial limits on travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
At a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, President Trump singled out Somalia, saying Somali immigrants “contribute nothing” and adding, “I don’t want them in our country.” Noem claimed that a review of visa cases in Minnesota showed “50% of them are fraudulent,” pledging that authorities would “remove them and get our money back.”
Earlier, Qazinform News Agency reported that the suspect accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, DC, had entered a plea of not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and assault.
