By Desire Emmanuel
President Donald Trump on Tuesday , December 16, signed a new proclamation among which he imposed partial restrictions and entry limitations on Nigeria, Senegal and 13 other countries.
He also imposed full limitations on many others which he said were aimed to protect American borders and national security.
The proclamation continues full restrictions and entry limitations of nationals from the original 12 high-risk countries established under Proclamation 10949: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
It adds full restrictions and entry limitations on five additional countries based on recent analysis: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria.
It also adds full restrictions and entry limitations on individuals holding Palestinian-Authority-issued travel documents.
It imposes full restrictions and entry limitations on two countries that were previously subject to partial restrictions: Laos and Sierra Leone.
The proclamation continues partial restrictions of nationals from four of the seven original high-risk countries: Burundi, Cuba, Togo, and Venezuela.
Because Turkmenistan has engaged productively with the United States and demonstrated significant progress since the previous proclamation, this new proclamation lifts the ban on its nonimmigrant visas, while maintaining the suspension of entry for Turkmen nationals as immigrants.
It adds partial restrictions and entry limitations on 15 additional countries: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The proclamation includes exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories like athletes and diplomats, and individuals whose entry serves US national interests.
The Proclamation narrows broad family-based immigrant visa carve-outs that carry demonstrated fraud risks, while preserving case-by-case waivers.
According to Trump, the restrictions and limitations imposed by the proclamation are necessary to prevent the entry of foreign nationals about whom the United States lacks sufficient information to assess the risks they pose, garner cooperation from foreign governments, enforce our immigration laws, and advance other important foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives.
