President Donald Trump’s administration is considering barring citizens from 36 additional countries from entering the United States, widening travel restrictions imposed earlier this month, according to a State Department cable reviewed by Reuters.
The confidential memo, signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, gives the governments in question 60 days to improve passport security, share identity data, and cooperate on deportations or risk full or partial suspension of entry for their citizens.
Countries on the draft list span Africa, the Caribbean, Asia, and the Pacific, including Nigeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Tanzania, Angola, Cambodia, Kyrgyzstan, Tonga, and Vanuatu. The cable cites inadequate identity documents, poor border controls, visa overstays, and terrorism concerns. Not every issue applies to every country, it notes.
A State Department spokesperson declined to discuss internal deliberations but said the department “continuously reviews policies to safeguard Americans and ensure foreign nationals comply with U.S. law.”
Trump last week banned travelers from 12 nations — Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen — and tightened entry rules on seven others. He has also stepped up deportations, including of suspected Venezuelan gang members, and restricted some foreign student visas.
The proposed expansion would mark the largest travel curb since Trump’s original 2017 order targeting several Muslim-majority countries, a ban the U.S. Supreme Court upheld in 2018.
