Trump's travel ban on cititzens from 12 countries takes effect

Euronews

4 hours ago

US President Donald Trump's sweeping ban on travel to the US by citizens of 12 countries took effect on Monday amid rising tensions over immigration.
The 12 countries targeted include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela are partially restricted.
On Wednesday, Trump warned in a video that new countries could be added to the list as "threats emerge around the world."
The ban comes more than eight years after his first travel ban in 2017 denied entry to citizens from mainly Muslim countries, sparking chaos at numerous airports and prompting months of legal battles.
Unlike Trump's first ban, no such disruption was immediately discernable at airports and other entry points.
Experts expect the proclamation — which is broader and more carefully crafted — to withstand legal challenges partly due its focus on the visa application process.
The ban does not revoke visas issued to countries included on the list however, unless the applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected from Monday.
Travelers with previously issued visas should still be able to enter the US even after the ban takes effect.
The announcement that the ban would take effect on Monday was overshadowed by other immigration battles, including widespread protests in Los Angeles against Trump's deportation raids. The demonstrations prompted the deployment of the National Guard — despite objections from California's governor.
The policy specifically targets citizens of Haiti and Afghanistan, though it makes exceptions for individuals who collaborated closely with the US government during the two-decade war.
It also imposes stricter measures on Venezuelan nationals, who have faced increased pressure under the Trump administration in recent months — including abrupt deportations to a detention facility in El Salvador which have ignited a legal battle.
The measure has been denounced by groups that provide aid and resettlement help to refugees. '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,' Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, said.
Trump has justified the ban by claiming that some countries had "deficient' screening for passports and other public documents or have historically refused to take back their own citizens.
The nationals in the countries included on the list impose "terrorism-related' and 'public-safety' risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas.
He also tied the ban to a terrorist attack in Colorado, which wounded a dozen people, saying it underscored the dangers posed by visitors who overstay visas in the US. The man charged in the incident is from Eygpt, a country not included in Trump's list.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday slammed the withdrawal of climate funding by the US, saying it was time to reach an agreement for the entire planet.
Macron said this on the eve of the 3rd United Nations Ocean Conference and amid rising pressure for nations to turn decades of promises into real protection for the sea.
Speaking to scientists at one of the sideline forums of the UN conference, the French president said: 'Unfortunately, if we are more or less clear-headed, we are at a time when international science, which still depends a lot on American funding, is withdrawing this funding, where we have a lot of people who are questioning multilateralism and these agencies".
The US is not attending the key UN Ocean summit in the French southern city of Nice, after the Trump administration effectively pulled out of all climate-related agreements and withdrew funding upon assumption of office in January.
On Sunday, Macron called on nations to commit to a moratorium on deep-sea exploitation. "I want us to reach an agreement for the entire planet. Because it's completely crazy. It's completely crazy to go and exploit, to go and drill in a place we don't know. It's frenzied madness."
Host to the third edition of the UN Ocean conference, Macron said around 30 heads of state and government have committed to a moratorium on deep-sea exploitation.
"There are already about 30 of us who have agreed. We're not going to give up. It's completely crazy to go and exploit, to go and drill in a place we don't know. It's frenzied madness," he stressed.
More than 50 world leaders are expected to attend the UN conference this week, with a major focus of the weeklong summit being a push to ratify the High Seas Treaty, which would enable conservation in international waters.
Thousands of delegates, including scientists and environmental advocates, began to arrive in Nice on Sunday for the conference that aims to debate plans to confront growing threats to the ocean and the need to transform pledges into protection.
The United Nations has called the threats a global emergency facing the world's oceans as they confront rising temperatures, plastic pollution choking marine life, and relentless overexploitation of fish and other resources.