SOURCE CNN- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem is recommending that the Trump administration’s travel ban list include between 30 to 32 countries, marking an increase from the current list of 19 countries, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Nationals of countries on the travel ban list face restrictions on travel to the United States. The source said the list could continue to expand based on ongoing assessments, but it is unclear which countries are being added to the list — and when they’ll be announced.
The recommendation to the White House comes on the heels of the shooting in Washington, DC, that killed one National Guard member and critically wounded another.
The shooting suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who previously worked with the US in Afghanistan, resettling in Washington state under the Biden administration and then being granted asylum under the Trump administration.
Noem said Monday that, following a meeting with President Donald Trump, she recommended a “full travel ban” on “every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
The current list of 19 countries with full or partial restrictions include Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Trump has previously said that some countries had “deficient” screening for passports and other public documents or have historically refused to take back their own citizens.
The Trump administration has also ramped up its immigration crackdown, citing the shooting in Washington, DC. Senior Trump administration officials have accused the Biden administration of insufficiently vetting the suspect and argued the current immigration system needs to be overhauled.
Last week, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that it will reexamine all green cards issued to people from the 19 countries currently facing full or partial travel restrictions.
The agency’s director, Joe Edlow, also announced updated guidance that authorizes USCIS officers “to consider country-specific factors as significant negative factors when reviewing immigration requests.”
The same day, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, said the administration was also reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under former President Joe Biden.
A day later, Edlow announced the US was pausing all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Trump has also threatened to “permanently pause” migration from what he called “third-world countries,” without specifying which countries he was referring to — a move Noem defended on Sunday.
This story and headline have been updated with additional information.
CNN’s Kaanita Iyer, Betsy Klein and Piper Hudspeth Blackburn contributed to this report.
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