US Plans To Expand Travel Ban To More Than 30 Countries, Administration Says — Legal Challenges Expected

U.S. Signals Major Expansion Of Travel Restrictions

Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota and a prominent ally of President Trump, said in a Fox News interview that the administration intends to expand its travel ban to cover "over 30" countries. The announcement would build on an existing list of 19 nations already subject to restrictions that apply to both immigrants and non‑immigrants, including tourists, students and business visitors.

Current Countries Under Restriction: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.

Noem did not identify which additional countries would be added. Immigration advocates and members of Congress reacted sharply, promising legal challenges and saying they would seek to halt new application processing for the 19 already listed countries. Rights groups also reported that some naturalization ceremonies for people from affected countries have been canceled.

Administration officials framed the move as part of a broader tightening of immigration and national‑security measures announced since a recent shooting that killed two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

Related Developments

Supreme Court And Birthright Citizenship: The Supreme Court is set to hear the president's request to uphold an executive order limiting birthright citizenship — an order that was issued early in the president’s second term and has been blocked from taking effect.

Caribbean Airstrike Footage: Lawmakers were shown video reportedly documenting two men who survived a U.S. airstrike on a suspected drug‑smuggling boat and were later killed in a second attack. Sources told Reuters the men appeared unarmed and unaware of the strike.

National Security Strategy: A recently released U.S. National Security Strategy paper warns of what it calls a possible "civilisational erasure" of Europe within two decades tied to immigration and EU integration, and urges the U.S. to promote resistance to Europe’s current trajectory — language critics say signals support for far‑right parties in Europe.

CDC Vaccine Advisory Vote: An advisory panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reportedly voted to narrow recommendations for the hepatitis B vaccine for newborns, a change critics called a reversal of long‑standing guidance. The vote was described as a recommendation to the health secretary.

Epstein Files Transparency Act: U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith ruled that the recently enacted Epstein Files Transparency Act overrides some federal rules that limit disclosure of grand jury materials, allowing the Justice Department to seek unsealing of transcripts from the 2006–2007 Florida grand jury probe.

State Department Visa Guidance: A memo shared with overseas posts, first reported by Reuters and NPR, directs consular officers to consider denying visas to applicants deemed "responsible for, or complicit in, censorship or attempted censorship of protected expression in the U.S."

Politics, Business And Law: Representative Ilhan Omar published an essay saying the president has attacked her community with bigotry. In business news, Netflix agreed to buy Warner Bros. Discovery in a deal valued at about $82.7 billion. Separately, a federal judge questioned the government's retention of command over National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles earlier this year.

Other Reports: A New Orleans resident says she was chased by masked federal agents amid immigration operations; the attorney general reportedly asked law enforcement to investigate alleged domestic extremist groups and potential related tax crimes; a tenured San José State professor is fighting dismissal connected to pro‑Palestinian protests; an Arizona congresswoman said she was sprayed in the face during a protest; a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School was arrested on a pellet‑gun charge and left the country; and Donald Trump accepted a newly created FIFA peace prize at the 2026 World Cup draw in Washington, D.C.

Note: Many items in this roundup reflect reporting from multiple outlets (including Reuters, NPR, The New York Times and The Guardian). Where official titles or attributions in earlier versions were unclear, this piece attributes statements to public figures and outlets that reported them.