Is my country listed? Trump travel ban is in effect now. Check which countries are included, and what's different this time

A new travel ban imposed by US President Donald Trump's administration on mainly Muslim-majority and Middle Eastern countries came into effect post midnight on Monday (June 9).

Trump travel ban 2.0: Which countries are affected?

The ban will mainly affect citizens of 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The citizens of these 12 countries will be completely banned from entering the US.

The Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas are exempted. These are people who worked with, and helped the US forces and administration during the two-decade US occupation of that country.

Afghanistan remains one of the largest source countries for resettled refugees, with 14,000 people arriving in the one-year period up to September 2024, since the Taliban takeover of 2021.

In its broader form, the Trump travel ban will affect seven more countries, whose citizens will face further scrutiny before entering.

These countries are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Terrorism, poor vetting process, visa overstays are causes

The travel ban is being imposed apparently due to terrorism allegedly emanating from the listed countries, lack of proper pre-departure vetting, and lack of cooperation from these countries on deportations.

Officials also said the countries named had high visa overstay rates, and failure in sharing identity and threat information.

The recent terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, was cited by Trump in defending the travel ban. The Egyptian suspect had overstayed a tourist visa. But notably, Egypt is not on the travel ban list.

According to the Trump administration, eight of the 12 banned countries in the new list have had high visa overstay record.

Travel ban amid massive immigration crackdown

The new Trump crackdown came even as pitched battles were being fought in Los Angeles between people and police during protests against the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The Trump administration's crackdown on migration has targeted people from across the southern border as well as students from different countries who had entered the country legally.

How will travel ban affect citizens of listed countries?

It is expected that those with visas already issued can enter the US even after the ban kicked in.

The new travel ban order, signed by Trump last week, will not affect visas already issued to those in the list.

But if applicants do not meet the stricter norms under the ban, their applications will be rejected from Monday.

Most of the listed countries do not send a lot of people to the US in any case. But Haiti, Cuba and Venezuela are exceptions, as they have been among the top source countries of immigration.
In Haiti, people are trying to escape poverty, hunger, gang violence and political turmoil.

Is this travel ban different from that of Trump's first term?

The new travel ban is limited in scope than the sweeping 'Muslim country ban' executive order of Trump's first term. That ban had rejected entry to thousands of people from Muslim-majority nations.

For the current ban, Trump took into account passport screening deficiencies, refusal of countries to take back their citizens from the US, and visa overstay data from the Homeland Security department.

Trump travel ban criticised

The new travel ban was slammed by activists, particularly those supporting refugees from Afghanistan. Trump had suspended refugee resettlement as part of the flurry of orders on day one of his return to the White House.

Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, was among those who criticised the travel ban, even as hundreds of people fought the immigration crackdowns in Los Angeles.

“This policy is not about national security – it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” Maxman said.