BUJUMBURA, Burundi — U.S. President Donald Trump has signed a new proclamation restricting travel from several countries, including Burundi, citing national security concerns, the White House announced Wednesday.
The proclamation imposes full travel bans on nationals from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Citizens from those countries will not be allowed entry into the United States.
Travel from seven other nations — including Burundi — will be partially restricted. The other countries facing limited entry include Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. The specific nature of the partial restrictions was not immediately disclosed.
“President Trump is fulfilling his promise to protect Americans from dangerous foreign actors that want to come to our country and cause us harm,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
According to the White House, the countries facing a full ban were determined to have “deficiencies in screening and vetting procedures” and were deemed to pose a “very high risk” to U.S. national security.
The travel proclamation was first reported by CBS News.
Trump’s move marks a return to a controversial immigration policy from his first term, when he implemented a travel ban on several majority-Muslim countries. That measure, widely criticized at the time, was eventually upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018.
President Joe Biden, who succeeded Trump in 2021, repealed the earlier travel ban, calling it “a stain on our national conscience.”
It remains unclear how the new restrictions will be implemented or how they may impact Burundian travelers and visa applicants.
