On December 16, 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump signed a proclamation expanding the list of countries whose citizens are restricted from entering the United States.
Trump justified restricting the countries on national security and public safety grounds. He cited high visa overstay rates, unreliable civil records, corruption, terrorist activity, and the countries’ refusal to accept deported nationals.
The president stated that imposing the ban would help his administration assess the risk posed by the foreign nationals, improve foreign governments’ willingness to cooperate, enforce the U.S. immigration laws, and advance the country’s foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives.
“It is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from foreign nationals who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security and public safety, incite hate crimes, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes,” the proclamation stated.
The ban follows the January 20, 2025, Executive Order 14161 Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats, which the president signed immediately after returning to the White House.
During his first term in office, Trump had introduced similar bans, which received widespread opposition but were upheld by the Supreme Court.
Trump said the bans would remain in place until the impacted countries improved their identity management processes, information sharing, and cooperation with the United States.
African countries largely impacted by Trump ban.
Unsurprisingly, Africa accounted for the lion’s share of the latest Trump ban, with at least 18 of the 20 countries recently added to the list belonging to the continent.
The newly added countries include Laos, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria, which were totally restricted.
Trump also added Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to the list of partially restricted countries.
Laos and Sierra Leone were previously on the list of partially restricted countries before they were totally banned, bringing the total number of newly restricted countries to 20.
Below is the full list of all 39 totally and partially restricted countries.
Countries with total bans.
- Afghanistan
- Burkina Faso
- Burma
- Chad
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Laos
- Libya
- Mali
- Niger
- Republic of the Congo
- Sierra Leone
- Somalia
- South Sudan
- Sudan
- Syria
- Yemen
Countries under partial restrictions
- Angola
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Benin
- Burundi
- Côte d’Ivoire
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Gabon
- The Gambia
- Malawi
- Mauritania
- Nigeria
- Senegal
- Tanzania
- Togo
- Tonga
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Turkmenistan nationals with immigrant visas are also affected, while those on other visa types are exempted. Individuals traveling on documents issued by the Palestinian Authority would also face restrictions.
Meanwhile, the bans do not affect permanent residents, current visa holders, diplomats, or people traveling on special visas, such as those issued for sporting events. Special waivers are also allowed on a case-by-case basis when deemed necessary for national interests.
The ban comes as the Kenyan president promised to scrap ID vetting for Kenyan Somalis, which could allow Somali nationals and refugees posing as Kenyans to acquire identification documents. Some have warned that the move could eventually put Kenya on the list of banned countries.
Currently, the U.S. has a priority immigrant system for nationals from Australia, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and Qatar.
