Adedokun Waliyu 
United States President Donald Trump has imposed a partial travel restriction on Nigeria, as part of a series of new actions.
This was contained in a statement titled “Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security Of The United States,” signed by the US president and published on the website of the White House on Tuesday.
The restriction, which takes effect in January, 2026, will affect Nigerians hoping to travel to the US, as it cites security concerns and difficulties in vetting nationals.
The travel restrictions also affect citizens of other African as well as Black-majority Caribbean nations.
According to the statement, the Secretary of State, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, had been directed by Proclamation 10949 of June 4, 2025 (Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals To Protect the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats), to submit a report to the President, through the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security, describing his assessment and recommending whether any suspensions and limitations imposed by the proclamation should be continued, terminated, modified, or supplemented.
“After reviewing the report described in subsection (d) of this section, and after accounting for the foreign policy, national security, and counterterrorism objectives of the United States, I have determined to partially restrict and limit the entry of nationals of the following 15 countries: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d ‘Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
“These restrictions distinguish between, but apply to both, the entry of immigrants and nonimmigrants,” the president stated.
Insecurity
Trump stated that “radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State operate freely in certain parts of Nigeria,” creating substantial screening and vetting difficulties.
He, therefore, said that the entry into the US by Nigerians as immigrants, and as nonimmigrants on B-1, B‑2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas, “is hereby suspended,” while consular officers shall reduce the validity for any other nonimmigrant visa issued to Nigerians to the extent permitted by law.
“According to the Overstay Report, Nigeria had a B-1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 5.56 percent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 11.90 percent.
“The entry into the United States of nationals of Nigeria as immigrants, and as nonimmigrants on B-1, B‑2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas, is hereby suspended.
“Consular officers shall reduce the validity for any other nonimmigrant visa issued to nationals of Nigeria to the extent permitted by law,” Trump said.
African-Origin Immigrants
The US president in recent weeks has used increasingly loaded languages in denouncing African-origin immigrants.
At a rally last week he said that the United States was only taking people from “shithole countries” and instead should seek immigrants from Norway and Sweden.
He also recently described Somalis as “garbage” following a scandal in which Somali Americans allegedly bilked the government out of money for fictitious contracts in Minnesota.
Trump had already banned the entry of Somalis. Other countries remaining on the full travel ban are Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Sudan, and Yemen.
Trump last month made the ban even more sweeping against Afghans, severing a program that helped bring in Afghans who had fought alongside the United States against the Taliban, after an Afghan veteran who appeared to have post-traumatic stress shot two National Guards troops deployed by Trump in Washington.
The countries newly subject to partial restrictions, besides Nigeria, are Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Dominica, Gabon, The Gambia, Ivory Coast, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Angola, Senegal and Zambia have all been prominent US partners in Africa, with former president Joe Biden hailing the three for their commitment to democracy.
In the proclamation, the White House alleged high crime rates from some countries on the blacklist and problems with routine record-keeping for passports.
The White House acknowledged “significant progress” by one initially targeted country, Turkmenistan.
The Central Asian country’s nations will once again be able to secure US visas, but only as non-immigrants.
Expanded US Travel Ban
Trump had on Tuesday expanded a US travel ban by barring nationals of seven more countries, including Syria, as well as Palestinian Authority passport holders, from entering the United States.
The US president, who has long campaigned to restrict immigration and has spoken in increasingly strident terms, moved to ban foreigners who “intend to threaten” Americans, the White House said.
He also wants to prevent foreigners in the United States who would “undermine or destabilize its culture, government, institutions or founding principles,” a White House proclamation said.
Trump’s move comes days after two US troops and a civilian were killed in Syria, which Trump has moved to rehabilitate internationally since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad.
Syrian authorities said the perpetrator was a member of the security forces who was due to be dismissed for “extremist Islamist ideas.”
The Trump administration had already informally barred travel from Palestinian Authority passport holders as it acts in solidarity with Israel against the recognition of a Palestinian state by other leading Western countries, including France and Britain.
Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa’s poorest countries — Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan — as well as Laos in southeast Asia.
