Global & US Headlines
Trump Doubles U.S. Travel Ban, Targeting 20 More Nations and Palestinian Documents
On 16 Dec 2025 President Trump signed a proclamation that, effective 1 Jan 2026, slaps full entry bans on five additional countries and partial limits on fifteen others, nearly doubling the roster of nations facing U.S. travel restrictions.
Focusing Facts
- Full bans now apply to Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, Syria, and holders of Palestinian-Authority travel documents under Proclamation 10983 signed 16 Dec 2025.
- Fifteen states—among them Nigeria, Tanzania, Angola and Tonga—were placed under new partial visa limits, bringing the total number of countries facing some form of restriction to almost 40.
- The expansion followed the 29 Nov 2025 fatal shooting of two National Guard soldiers by an Afghan national, cited by the White House as proof of vetting failures.
Context
This move echoes the U.S. Immigration Act of 1924, which set nationality quotas after anarchist bombings (1919), and the 2017 Trump travel ban on seven Muslim-majority states later upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Across a century the pattern is the same: security shocks—real or perceived—fuel exclusionary policy justified as administrative ‘vetting’. Digitised border controls, biometric databases and social-media screening make the 2025 edict more sweeping than the paper-based bans of 1924 or even 2017, yet the logic—linking national origin to threat—remains unchanged. In the long arc of U.S. immigration (peaks in 1907, 1990, 2022), such proclamations tend to be temporary walls that erode under demographic demand, court challenges, and foreign-policy trade-offs; but each sets precedents normalising algorithmic gatekeeping. If global mobility continues to rise and climate migration accelerates, historians in 2125 may see this proclamation not as an endpoint but as one more ratchet in a decades-long securitisation of borders that began after 11 Sept 2001.
Perspectives
Security-framing business media
e.g., CNBC TV18, Devdiscourse — They present the expanded travel ban chiefly as a national-security measure meant to plug vetting gaps and prevent terror attacks on U.S. soil. By echoing White House talking points with little scrutiny, this coverage risks normalising sweeping nationality-based restrictions and understating humanitarian or diplomatic costs.
African news outlets
e.g., The Africa Report, Telangana Today — Their stories highlight that the policy hits African nations hardest, labelling the move unfair and warning it will strain U.S.–Africa relations and hamper travel, trade and sports ties. Focusing on regional harm may lead these outlets to minimise the documented problems of fraudulent documents and overstay rates that U.S. officials cite to justify the restrictions.
Outlets linking the ban to Israel/Palestine and broader discrimination
e.g., eNCAnews, NEWS.am — They frame the proclamation as part of Trump’s pro-Israel stance and a broader pattern of discrimination against Muslim-majority or conflict-ridden states, noting the inclusion of Palestinian Authority passport holders and Syria. This narrative can amplify anti-U.S. or anti-Israeli sentiment and may overlook the policy’s stated security vetting criteria in favour of a political motive explanation.