The Trump administration is preparing to significantly widen its travel ban to include roughly 30 additional countries, according to reporting from Bloomberg. The expansion marks one of the most far-reaching efforts yet by President Donald Trump to curtail migration to the United States after last week’s deadly shooting of two National Guard members in Washington.
A Department of Homeland Security official told reporters that the list of affected countries is expected soon. The US already enforces a full travel block on travelers from 12 nations and imposes partial restrictions on seven others. The new additions would dramatically escalate those limits, forming one of the administration’s most sweeping immigration actions since Trump returned to office.
The shift comes in the wake of the attack that killed one Guard member and critically injured another. Federal authorities identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with US forces and the CIA before arriving in the United States in 2021. Trump and his allies have pointed to the case as evidence of failures under former President Joe Biden, accusing the previous administration of allowing security gaps that enabled Lakanwal’s entry.
In the days following the shooting, Trump outlined a series of proposed measures to restrict migration, including halting admissions from certain developing nations, revoking citizenship for some naturalized immigrants, and ending federal benefits for non-citizens. While it remains unclear how broadly these policies would be implemented, Bloomberg reported that expanding the travel ban appears to be one of the most immediate and concrete steps the administration is prepared to take.
Trump’s travel ban has long been among his most controversial policies. During his first term, the measure went through multiple revisions and faced extended legal battles before the US Supreme Court ultimately upheld it as within presidential authority. Earlier this year, Trump reinstated the policy, once again placing limits on travel from specific nations.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Monday that she met with the president to recommend expanding the ban, though she did not specify how many countries would be added. In a post on X, Noem said she urged Trump to impose a “full travel ban” on countries she claims are “flooding our nation” with dangerous migrants.
Countries currently subject to a full ban include Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Partial bans apply to travelers from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
US immigration agencies have already begun tightening procedures. US Citizenship and Immigration Services recently issued guidance treating a country’s presence on the travel ban list as a “significant negative factor” in immigration decisions. At the same time, the State Department has paused all visa issuances for Afghan nationals using Afghan passports, affecting even Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants.
Trump has signaled that tougher measures are still to come. Last week, he said on social media that he intends to “permanently” halt migration from “all Third World Countries.” But Bloomberg notes that the administration’s push to overhaul immigration began well before the National Guard shooting. The White House has lowered the refugee cap, ended temporary protected status for several national groups, imposed a $100,000 application fee for H-1B visas, and revoked thousands of visas. An internal Nov. 21 memo seen by Bloomberg shows the administration also plans to review cases of all refugees resettled during the Biden administration. USCIS has additionally paused certain green card applications as part of heightened screening, Bloomberg previously reported.
The expansion of the travel ban, first reported by CBS News, underscores the administration’s accelerating effort to reshape America’s immigration system — a campaign now gaining even greater urgency in the aftermath of the Washington attack.
