On June 9, 2025, President Donald Trump’s reinstated travel ban officially took effect, prohibiting entry to nationals of 12 countries and imposing partial restrictions on seven additional ones. These sweeping new restrictions update Trump’s 2017 to 2018 travel ban and add countries such as Haiti and Myanmar to the list.
This time, the ban includes full bans for nationals of these countries, predominantly in Africa and the Middle East: Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Chad, Congo (Republic), Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Partial bans affect citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The partial ban suspends their entry into the United States as nonimmigrants holding tourist and business visitor visas, such as B-1 and B-2, as well as students and trainees holding F, M, and J visas.
Who is not affected?
Exceptions apply to those with valid visas issued before June 9, 2025, law-abiding U.S. permanent residents (“green card holders”), dual-citizens traveling with non-banned passports, diplomats and select groups like athletes. Dual citizens traveling with non-banned passports are also exempt—for example, someone who holds dual citizenship in Iran and the United Kingdom can still travel using their U.K. passport.
Refugees, adoption cases and certain Afghan SIV (Special Immigrant Visa) holders are also exempt; however changes to these exceptions may also occur in the future.
Legal preparedness and justification
This incarnation of the ban is crafted to withstand the legal scrutiny that challenged Trump’s first travel ban in 2017. Citing the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. Hawaii, which upheld a revised version of Trump’s original travel ban, senior White House advisors claim this version is better fortified, with targeted national security reasoning and advance notice to airlines and travelers.
Justifications cited include security vetting failures and insufficient data sharing from the listed countries, plus high visa overstay rates and non-cooperation in repatriating deportees. However, critics say these claims misrepresent the data, overstay numbers are small, and mechanisms already exist to handle non-cooperating nations.
Nevertheless, heightened scrutiny has been reported at entry points, even for pre-existing visa holders. Some travelers from partially affected countries say they’ve been questioned more intensely than usual.
Many international and U.S. advocacy groups have denounced the policy. There is a built-in review process requiring the Secretary of State to assess each country’s involvement 90 days after the ban begins and an additional 180 days after that. Countries may be added or removed based on diplomatic negotiations and vetting improvements. This ongoing cycle will be critical in determining how the policy evolves.
What to watch out for
There will likely be legal challenges to the travel ban, and the courts may reexamine how the administration is implementing these bans based on national security claims. There are also continued reciprocal actions such as sanctions or limits to visas granted to U.S. citizens that may impact broader U.S. relationships with these countries.
Additionally, changes to procedures and vetting travelers will continue and families, students, and other individuals caught in the ban may face delays, visa barriers and denial of entry to the U.S.
Trump’s renewed travel ban marks a significant expansion in immigration restrictions, with broad impacts across travel, diplomacy and human rights. While designed to be legally sturdy and smoothly implemented, it invites immediate challenges—legal, diplomatic and humanitarian.
Its fate will be shaped by ongoing judicial rulings, diplomatic pressure and the outcomes of the scheduled reviews over the coming months. The global community will be watching closely.
Barbara Wong-Wilson is an attorney at Mission Law & Advocacy, P.C. and SW Law Group P.C. If you have any questions on U.S. immigration matters, please feel free to reach out to wo**@*********ws.com or wo**@****pc.com.
