The Trump administration is considering implementing travel restrictions to Ghana and 35 other countries, including some major U.S. partners such as Egypt and Djibouti, according to an internal memo seen by The Washington Post.
The administration already announced restricted travel from citizens of 19 countries early this month.
Among the new list of countries that could face visa bans or other restrictions are 25 African nations plus countries in the Caribbean, Central Asia and several Pacific Island nations.
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According to the Washington Post, a State Department spokesperson said the agency would not comment on internal deliberations or communications, and the White House also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What does this mean for you?
This new move reflects a broader strategy by the Rubio-led State Department to tighten immigration enforcement and 'push' international cooperation on U.S. immigration priorities.
By tying cooperation to concrete benchmarks, the U.S. is using visa access and migration privileges as leverage over other nations. This could impact all visa types including F1 and B2 visas.
The memo, which was signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and sent Saturday to U.S. diplomats who work with the countries, said the governments of listed nations were being given 60 days to meet new benchmarks and requirements established by the State Department. It set a deadline of 8 a.m. Wednesday for them to provide an initial action plan for meeting the requirements.
The memo identified varied benchmarks that, in the administration’s estimation, these countries were failing to meet. Some countries had “no competent or cooperative central government authority to produce reliable identity documents or other civil documents,” or they suffered from “widespread government fraud.” Others had large numbers of citizens who overstayed their visas in the United States, the memo said.
Other reasons included the availability of citizenship by monetary investment without a requirement of residency and claims of “antisemitic and anti-American activity in the United States” by people from those countries. The memo also stated that if a country was willing to accept third-country nationals who were removed from the United States or enter a “safe third country” agreement it could mitigate other concerns.