The Donald Trump administration is working on a policy change that would limit green cards and other approvals for immigrants who are from Trump’s ‘travel ban’ countries. In June, President Trump signed a travel ban on 12 countries in Africa and the Middle East. People from Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen can not travel to the US. If their nationals are already in the US, before the travel ban list came, they would find it hard to get a green card or other approvals in the US, the New York Times reported, after reviewing draft documents as the policy is still being finalized. “The policy change is a major expansion of the administration’s push to crack down on immigration from countries that it says lack sufficient screening and vetting for official documents. The shift would make it more challenging for those who arrived in the country before the travel ban to remain,” the NYT reported. Apart from these 12 countries, seven other countries have partial restrictions in the US. People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela cannot enter the United States permanently of receive certain visas. The administration made some exceptions to the travel ban as it exempted people with existing visas, people with green cards, athletes traveling to the United States for the 2026 World Cup or the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, and Afghans eligible for the Special Immigrant Visa program.
What is the new limitation on green card?
Though there is no official word, the new policy change is an expansion of the administration’s push to crack down on immigration from countries that it says lack sufficient screening and vetting for official documents, the NYT report said. In the draft documents, the agency said some countries might not share enough vetting and screening information. Some countries also do not have adequate authorities for issuing passports and other documents, which affected the agency’s ability to decide whether an immigrant from that country qualified for a benefit, according to the documents.
