Five graphics that show how many people the trip to travel by President Trump will affect
The proclamation of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, restricting entry into the United States for nationals from a patchwork in 19 countries revives one of his most controversial policies in his first mandate and targets several of the same countries.
From Monday, the directive prohibits the entry for nationals of 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. He also establishes partial prohibitions and visa restrictions for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Trump instituted similar travel restrictions during his first mandate and even targeted several of the same countries, including Iran, Libya and Venezuela.
About 139,000 visas were issued for visitors to 19 countries during the year 2023, according to data from the State Department. Visitors from Venezuela received the most visas.
In all countries, tourism and commercial visas have been issued most often.
Trump’s proclamation cited the risk of security and terrorism as the reason for certain restrictions, and he specifically accused visitors of several of the countries of staying the expiration dates of their visas. But data from the Ministry of Internal Security show that if several of the countries had high surpassing rates during the year 2023, the actual number of people was low.
Eritrea, for example, had the second highest surpassing rate, but the total was just over 200, a small fraction of the number of overtakings in Mexico, India or Brazil.
