TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN NOW INCLUDES PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PASSPORT HOLDERS

Written by Michael Thervil

TRUMP’S TRAVEL BAN NOW INCLUDES PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY PASSPORT HOLDERS | PHOTO BY BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP

[Trump travel ban Palestinian Authority passport holders] In the Trump Administration's latest move to counter what they are citing as a “war on terror”, President Trump has announced that he is effectively banning the entry of citizens from Niger, Laos, Burkina Faso, Mali, South Sudan, Sierra Leone, and Syria to an ever growing list of countries that being banned from coming to the United States. One of the biggest travel bans is on citizens that hold a Palestinian Authority Passport. The decision to add these countries to the American travel ban was to “to protect the security of the United States.” Although the travel ban isn’t immediate, it will take effect January 1^st, 2026.

According to the White House, the overarching reason for implementation of the travel ban was due to the countries “suffer[ing] from widespread corruption, fraudulent or unreliable civil documents and criminal records, and nonexistent birth-registration systems — systemically preventing accurate vetting.”. Another underlying reason beyond America's failure to properly screen and vet travelers, was due to the fear that suspected terrorists would gain the ability to bypass screening checks and enter the United States. The expansion of the travel ban especially pertains to those that are looking to travel to America from Gaza and West Bank of Palestine.

This would be President Trump's third round of travel bans since his first term in office which has already affected many people that were looking to visit the United States. The current list of countries on the Trump Administration's travel ban list includes:

• Afghanistan

• Burkina Faso

• Burma

• Chad

• Equatorial Guinea

• Eritrea

• Haiti

• Iran

• Laos

• Libya

• Mali

• Niger

• Republic of the Congo

• Sierra Leone

• Somalia

• South Sudan

• Sudan

• Syria

• Yemen

Countries that have a partial or restricted travel ban imposed on them are as follows:

• Angola

• Antigua and Barbuda

• Benin

• Burundi

• Côte d'Ivoire

• Cuba

• Dominica

• Gabon

• The Gambia

• Malawi

• Mauritania

• Nigeria

• Senegal

• Tanzania

• Togo

• Tonga

• Venezuela

• Zambia

• Zimbabwe

The Trump Administration's travel ban list is expected to grow well into next year as many geopolitical analysts take the position that the countries that are on the travel ban list, fully or restricted, is due to those countries not bowing down to the political pressure exerted onto them by the Trump Administration.