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President Trump issues new travel ban
President Trump has announced a new ban on travel to the U.S. from 12 countries. The ban is similar to the travel ban he enacted during his first term in the oval office. Bill Hing, the director of the Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic at the University of San Francisco, joined us on 'The Nine' for more insight.
OAKLAND, Calif. - President Trump on Wednesday signed a proclamation banning travel from 12 countries, and restricting the entry of nationals from seven others, citing national security concerns.
The countries named in the ban are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, The Republic of Congo, Equitorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Seven other countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — have had partial restrictions placed upon them.
The proclamation will go into effect on June 9, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. Nationals from those countries who have been granted immigration or travel visas prior to June 9 will be exempt from the ban.
The countries named in the ban, the proclamation states, do not have secure systems to screen people before giving them passports or visas, or they have a high number of people who stay in the United States past their visa's expiration.
Trump pointed to the man charged with the recent attack in Colorado, Mohamed Sobry Soliman, an Egyptian national, as evidence that the ban is necessary. After they arrested Soliman, authorities learned he had entered the United States in August 2022 on a visa that expired in February, 2023.
"We've seen one terror attack after another carried out by foreign visa overstayers, from dangerous places all over the world," Trump said in an announcement about the travel ban.
Egypt and Egyptian nationals will not be affected by the order.
Condemnation
What they're saying:
Similar to Trump's 2017 "Muslim Ban," which also barred travel from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as Syria, the order has been widely condemned as specifically targeting Muslims and African countries.
"This policy may look more 'legalistic than the first Muslim ban, but the impact is just as devastating. It revives a discredited idea that entire nations — and by extension, their people — are security threats simply for being who they are or where they're from," Zahra Billoo, the executive director of the Bay Area office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said in a statement.
The Asian Law Caucus, a San Francisco-based nonprofit civil rights organization, released a statement calling the proclamation "dehumanizing."
"Today, President Trump is claiming the power to control our lives by enacting a more expansive ban targeting 19 countries. This policy will tear families apart worldwide, preventing people from being together during life's critical moments," Aarti Kohli, Asian Law Caucus' executive director said in a statement. "Through dehumanizing lies and erratic policies, the federal government is pointing the finger at aspiring citizens, students, immigrant families and Asian, African, Latin and Muslim Americans, hoping to distract us as they destroy our jobs, healthcare, and schools — the real solutions we need for well-being and prosperity."
Precedents
Dig deeper:
While the ban is effectively a reinstatement of Trump's 2017 ban, legal experts say it shows the Administration has learned from past mistakes, namely that it has to provide a legal justification for barring travel. In this case, the Administration claims the named countries have insufficient procedures to vet travelers' identities and criminal histories.
Bill Hing, the director of the immigration and deportation defense clinic at the University of San Francisco said
the vetting procedures are "pretty extreme." Consulate officials vet would-be travelers by checking their fingerprints, checking with local officials and investigating their social media profiles.
"When this is challenged in court, the Trump Administration will have to show that evidence. Not just these percentages of folks that overstay their visas, but show what they allege — that these countries are not forthcoming on the criminal background of different folks that apply for visas, and that somehow the US embassies are being misled," Hing said. "In my experience, when the foreign country doesn't cooperate with providing background information, the visa is denied. Now they're trying to exclude an entire group from an entire country, rather than just individuals."
Hing said that a court challenge, while not futile, will be difficult. The Supreme Court upheld an iteration of Trump's 2017 ban, which set a precedent.
"It depends on what evidence the administration has. A trial judge at a lower court is going to demand to see that, "well what is your proof that the foreign country is not cooperating with background checks?'", Hing said. " If the government doesn't have that information, they will lose at the trial court, and they could lose at the Supreme Court, depending on (the evidence they have) for the different countries."
One of the named countries offered a response to the ban on Thursday morning. The central African nation of Chad has suspended issuing visas to citizens of the United States.
"Chad has no planes to offer, no billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and pride," President Idriss Deby of Chad, in a Facebook post.