The White House announced that U.S. President Donald Trump has signed an executive order tightening restrictions on the entry of citizens from several new countries, citing that they “exhibit clear, ongoing, and significant deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing processes, in order to protect the American people from threats.”
According to the White House statement, the order maintains full entry restrictions on citizens of the 12 previously designated “high-risk” countries: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
The order adds full entry restrictions on five additional countries: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria. It also imposes restrictions on individuals holding travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority.
Furthermore, the order imposes restrictions on two countries that were previously subject to partial restrictions: Laos and Sierra Leone. Partial restrictions will continue to apply to citizens of four of the seven countries previously classified as “high-risk”: Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela.