Trump’s Travel Bans Chilling Impact

By April Ryan
NNPA White House
Correspondent

“Another shameful mo­ment for our nation’s for­eign policy” is what rank­ing member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Greg Meeks calls President Trump’s latest travel ban on 12 countries.

Trump reinstated his first-time travel ban based on national security con­cerns. Beginning June 9, 2025, at 12:01, citizens of the designated countries are banned from entering the United States.

The entry bans citizens from the following coun­tries:

Afghanistan, Myan­mar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The 12 countries on the travel ban list comprise sev­en African nations and one Caribbean nation. This ban will impact commerce and possibly diplomatic rela­tions with these countries.

Congressman Meeks says, “Trump’s travel ban is discriminatory from the ground up, and ultimately self-defeating—it even be­trays our Afghan allies who supported U.S. troops over our 20-year war and were waiting for their visas to en­ter the United States.”

President Trump also signed a ban on internation­al students attending Har­vard University, a school he has been battling with over issues such as antisemitism on campus and discrimina­tion against white, Asian, male, and straight individ­uals.

The Trump administra­tion is also concerned with China’s foreign influence and perceived woke ideol­ogy. Chioma Chookwoo of American Oversight says, “A quarter of Harvard’s stu­dent population is interna­tional.”

The latest travel ban has far-reaching implications for higher education in the United States. North Caro­lina Democratic Congress­woman Alma Adams told Black Press USA, “Nation­wide, we have more than 1 million international stu­dents who contribute $50 billion to the U.S. economy each year.”

In Adam’s home district, she says the University of North Carolina at Char­lotte” has 2,000 internation­al students from nearly 100 countries.”

The congresswoman, who also is a member of the House Committee on Education, says, “These students are coming to our country to better their edu­cation and consistently give more than they receive.”

“Between this latest travel ban, the freeze on student visa processing, and oth­er chilling actions to de­ter international students, the Trump administration is creating a self-inflicted brain drain that further damages our economy and undermines U.S. influence and soft power,” offered Meeks.