For those clutching their pearls (Leftists) about our travel bans, here’s the short version [1] about something that happened recently: the United States has decided it would like to know who is coming into the country – and whether they pose a threat – before waving them through the door.
Shocking, right? And when we say the “United States,” we mean Trump, who put out a proclamation [2] on December 16 titled “Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States.”
The new presidential proclamation restricts entry from countries that can’t reliably verify basic information like identity, criminal history, or even birth records. In some cases, documents are handwritten, easily forged, or sold to the highest bidder. In others, governments don’t control large portions of their own territory, terrorist groups operate freely, or corruption is so rampant that records are essentially fictional.
According to Trump’s proclamation, that makes meaningful vetting nearly impossible – and pretending otherwise puts Americans at risk.
Sounds like common sense, right?
The proclamation primarily applies to people seeking new visas or entry into the U.S., not those who already hold valid visas. Individuals who were approved before the restrictions took effect can still travel under their current documentation. The new rules go into effect January 1, 2026.
The expanded travel ban adds Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria to the original list [3] of 12 countries, which already included places like Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran. Travelers holding Palestinian Authority–issued documents are also fully barred from entering the United States.
This targeted response means that countries with high visa overstay rates, unreliable records, or documented ties to terrorism and organized crime are flagged.
Critics will, of course, label this everything from “extreme” to “mean.” And they have continuously called Trump’s travel bans racist and xenophobic. But who really cares?
Most Americans call this what it is: common sense. If you can’t confirm who someone is, where they’ve been, or whether they’re dangerous, letting them enter the U.S. isn’t smart – it’s negligence. But it’s what the Democrats have done. Trump is ending it.
Everyday Americans lock their doors, check IDs, and don’t hand house keys to strangers they don’t know. The federal government doing the same thing at the border isn’t radical. It’s overdue.