What to know:
- Nationals of 12 countries — including Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — have been barred from entering the United States after a Trump administration executive order went into effect Monday at 12:01 a.m. ET.
- Nationals from seven additional countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — face significant visa restrictions.
- President Donald Trump said the ban, which primarily targets countries in Africa and the Middle East, is necessary to preserve national security and prevent terrorism in the United States.
- A similar policy in Trump’s first term, which barred foreigners from six Muslim-majority countries from entering the country, was reversed by President Joe Biden. On the campaign trail, Trump promised he would revive the ban.
- People living in the United States who are affected by the travel ban or the increased travel restrictions expressed a mix of fear, anxiety, anger, confusion and heartbreak. A Venezuelan American woman said she feared she would never see her Venezuelan grandparents again.
International students likely to face 'continued uncertainty' and 'additional scrutiny,' lawyer says
Some international students will face ongoing uncertainty under the Trump administration's travel ban, according to Dan Berger, an immigration attorney based in Northampton, Massachusetts.
The travel ban bars nationals from 12 countries from entering the U.S. and places an additional seven countries under partial travel restrictions. The ban will not affect international students from those countries if they have valid visas or those who were in the U.S. at the time the ban was issued, Berger said. However, it will prevent prospective students from the affected countries who were planning to attend U.S. universities in the fall from getting visas if they haven't already, he said.
Student visas are generally valid for five years, but the duration is dependent on the length of a student's program. Students don't need to renew their visas if they take approved absences of less than five months. However, those who do leave for more than five months (to study abroad, for example) would likely have to renew their visas, and it's unclear if those from the affected countries would be able to under the ban. Students in that situation, Berger said, will likely face "additional scrutiny at every step of the immigration process."
He said current students from the affected countries are nervous about what it could mean for them, while "some people who think they may not be able to live out their dream are devastated."
There are still many unanswered questions, Berger said.
"Even if they're not covered by the travel ban, will students be able to get their visas in time?" he asked. "Will they be able to come to the U.S.? And once they come to the U.S., will they be able to travel and see their families or do field work or do other things or study abroad while they're here?"
He added, "What we're expecting is just continued uncertainty. We don't know if there will be a new policy in a month or two months."
Yemeni American says travel ban is causing 'deep fear and anxiety' in her community
Dozens of community leaders and activists gathered in downtown Chicago today to stand up against the Trump administration’s new travel ban.
“This is undeniably rooted in anti-Muslim, anti-Black and anti-Arab racism,” said Nadiah Alyafai, an organizer at the Arab American Action Network and a Yemeni American.
Alyafai said her community is facing “deep fear and anxiety,” with many Yemenis who are legal permanent residents feeling no sense of safety or security. She said African and Arab communities across Chicago worry about escalating attacks on their people because of the ban.
“We are witnessing a deliberately targeted effort to undermine our rights, our freedoms and our dignities,” Alyafai said. “Now our families will be further torn apart as we will be unable to be reunited with loved ones and elders in other countries simply because of our nationality.”
Organizers at today’s rally in Chicago also spoke out against increased Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations across the country, calling the travel ban “an extension and continuation of attacks on immigrants and the marginalized.”
A Venezuelan American fears she'll never see her grandparents again
Raquel Fernandez, a Venezuelan American immigration attorney, told NBC News she is worried that she will not be able to see her grandparents again because of the travel ban.
Her grandparents are in their 80s and 90s and live in Venezuela. Fernandez’s grandfather’s tourist visa to visit the U.S. expired, and her family was trying to arrange for him to renew the visa this year before the ban went into effect.
“They’re older in age, and if this ban continues and their visas are all expired, I won’t be able to see them ever again, which is heartbreaking,” Fernandez, 33, said. “I try to keep myself from thinking about it.”
Fernandez is a U.S. citizen but, given that Venezuela is on the State Department's "do not travel" list, she has not visited the country since 2012. Her grandparents have been traveling to the U.S. since the 1980s and '90s on tourism visas, she said, adding that they have never overstayed their visas.
“We’re all just kind of in limbo, waiting to see what will happen and how long this will last,” she said.
Trump travel ban hits immigrant family coming to U.S. amid bloody civil war in Myanmar
A Burmese American woman was eager to bring her siblings over to the U.S. from Myanmar amid a more than 15-year wait for visas. She’d been hoping to reunite with them since the 1990s, during military rule in her home country, so her brother’s family could start a life in the U.S. But a day after she bought the plane tickets, President Donald Trump ordered a travel ban that included Myanmar.
The woman, 51, and her husband, who were granted anonymity due to fear of retaliation, had sponsored her brother and sister-in-law to immigrate to the U.S. The siblings were then hoping to bring their own adult kids, too, so that they wouldn’t have to fulfill mandatory military service in the country’s active civil war.
With the travel ban in effect Monday, they said the policy has a heightened impact on people from war-torn countries like Myanmar who had hopes of finding sanctuary in the U.S.
“It’s really frustrating because we were on the cusp of securing their safety to leave that situation,” said her husband, 57, adding he felt like a “rug got pulled out from under us in an instant.”
Thousands of international students could now be in limbo
During the 2023-24 academic year, there were 1,126,690 international students from more than 200 countries studying at U.S. higher education institutions, according to Open Doors, a nonprofit sponsored by the U.S. Department of State. An analysis by NBC News found there were 18,926 students from the 12 countries now facing a travel ban, and an additional 5,339 students from the seven countries facing travel restrictions.
Iran has the most international students in the U.S. among these 19 countries, with 12,430 students during the 2023-24 academic year. Nearly half of these students (45.8%) were studying STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and math), according to Open Door.
According to education news site Inside Higher Ed, Trump’s June 4 travel restriction proclamation could “deal a major blow” to international student enrollment: “The travel ban doesn’t immediately affect students currently in the U.S. or who have already been approved for visas. But with many admitted international students still languishing in a visa process that the State Department halted two weeks ago, it will likely prevent thousands of students from attending in the fall and upend institutions’ projected enrollments,” the site reported.
Confusion and anger grip those affected
A 38-year-old Haitian green-card holder in Miami who was too fearful to allow her name to be used said last week she and many others in the community feel “confused and scared” over the travel ban on Haiti. She said most of her family lives there, including her sister and father, who is sick. “They come all the time to visit and now I don’t know if they will be able to,” she said, adding she heard there were exceptions to the ban but wasn’t sure.
In Havana last week, a queue of people outside the U.S. Embassy learned the news of the travel ban and suspensions as they waited for their visa interviews.
“I had been waiting nine years for this moment,” said one young woman in line, who declined to be identified by name for fear it might affect her visa chances. She and others said the suspension means not being able to visit family or escape dire circumstances in Cuba.
“If they don’t grant visas, Cubans will starve, given the situation, they will starve,” said Ismael Gainza, a retired Cuban. “I see that measure as bad, I see it as bad because the situation is tough and we have to survive.”
Families move up flights out of Cuba ahead of travel ban
Jamie Miguel, who lives in Havana, said his wife moved up her return to the U.S. ahead of the Trump administration’s travel ban.
“We were afraid that something might happen with the restrictions that are coming into effect now,” Miguel told NBC News in Havana in a translated interview. “It was necessary to move up the return as a precaution.”
He was at José Martí International Airport on Monday to say goodbye to his wife.
“She was visiting here, the news came out, and you know, it’s time to run,” he said.
Loraine Garcia, from Hialeah, Florida, said she moved up her flight to today “because it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Erick Orta, a boxing trainer, is concerned he won’t be able to see his children, who live in Las Vegas.
“I need to travel, as I used to travel before. I would travel for three months and then return to Cuba,” Orta explained, saying the ban is “wrong.”
Protesters expected to rally in downtown Manhattan
Immigration advocates and organizations are scheduled to rally in New York City’s Foley Square on Monday morning in protest of the travel ban that primarily targets countries in Africa and the Middle East.
A number of city and nonprofit group leaders will speak at the downtown Manhattan rally, including Linda Sarsour, co-chair of the 2017 Women’s March and executive director of the Muslim grassroots organization MPower Change.
Breaking down the legality of Trump’s travel ban
Trump travel ban strikes fear in Afghans who worked with U.S. military
Months before the travel ban was announced, it sparked panic among Afghans who were promised visas for their work with the U.S. military, refugee advocates told NBC News in March.
Refugee advocate groups appealed to the administration to make an exception for tens of thousands of Afghans who have received or who are due to receive special immigrant visas for their work for the U.S. military or the U.S. Embassy during the 20-year U.S. war in Afghanistan.
