President Donald Trump Issues Travel Bans For Two Caribbean Nations

NEW YORK, New York – Caribbean-American legislators and national immigration advocates have collectively expressed profound outrage, strongly condemning President Donald J. Trump’s immediate travel ban barring people from 12 countries, including Haiti and Cuba, from entering the United States.

Besides Haiti, Trump on Wednesday banned people from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen from entering the US.

The US President also placed restrictions on travelers from Cuba, Venezuela, Burundi, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo and Turkmenistan.”

“It is with outrage and concern that Trump’s administration has imposed a new travel ban that disproportionately affects African and Caribbean nations, including Haiti,” New York State Assembly Member, Rodnesye Bichotte Hermelyn,  told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) on Thursday.

“As the daughter of Haitian immigrants, I condemn this discriminatory policy against Haiti and other countries. This decision will create chaos, threaten families, and harm diplomatic relations, causing fear and uncertainty,” added  the representative for the 42nd Assembly District in Brooklyn. .

The Haitian-American chair of the Brooklyn, New York Democratic Party said she is urging Americans to oppose Trump’s “racist and xenophobic” policies, and fight to restore democracy in “our legislative, executive and judicial branches”.

New York City Council Member, Farah N. Louis, the daughter of Haitian and Bahamian immigrants, said Trump’s decision to impose the travel restrictions “represents a despicable and deeply troubling moment for our community.

“Haiti is once again being unfairly targeted, and this is clearly an intentional attack on our identity and dignity,” the representative for the 45th Council District in Brooklyn told CMC.

“This federal government has exhibited ongoing hostility toward Haiti and Haitian nationals in the United States, people who have fought to make their home here and invested heavily in our economy while supporting our shared values.

“Reports of this recent and immediate travel ban compound the crisis we are already confronting, the administration’s massive deportation efforts scheduled for August 2025,” Louis said, adding that turning away Haitians fleeing violence and political instability is “cruel policy wrapped in false justification.

“The United States has a moral obligation to protect, not punish, the vulnerable. This decision punishes people fleeing crisis and betrays the values we claim to uphold.”

Louis said the National Haitian American Organization Network,  uniting Haitian elected officials and executive leaders nationwide,  will soon announce “a comprehensive, coordinated national strategy to support Haitian nationals affected by this recent decision.

“Together, we stand committed to protecting our community and ensuring their voices are heard,” she said.

Caribbean-American Congresswoman, Yvette D. Clarke’s described Trump’s decision as “bigotry in the name of security.

“We’ve seen it before,” said the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, who represents the 9th Congressional District in Brooklyn.

“We remember the Muslim Ban and what he had to say about ‘shit hole’ countries. His hate isn’t new. But …the president saw the world’s most suffering people, and he chose to make them suffer more,” added the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

“What kind of man is he?” asked Clarke.

The New York Immigration Coalition (NYIC), an umbrella policy and advocacy organization that represents over 200 immigrant and refugee rights groups throughout New York, said this latest move is “an escalation from Trump’s first term travel ban, which primarily targeted Muslim-majority countries.

“The American dream is the quintessential American value. With the return of a super-charged Muslim and African Ban, and the racist exclusion of certain people from the ability to seek safety and refuge, Donald Trump and his enablers are attacking the very concept of America itself,” Murad Awawdeh, NYIC’s president and chief executive officer, told CMC.

“When our country first experienced the Muslim Ban in 2017, the American people rejected it. We fought back, and we won. The xenophobic fanatics controlling the federal government now believe they have a mandate for hate and cruelty. But, as immigrant communities face attack after attack from the Trump administration, we will continue to fight back.

“History will look back at this moment as one of the darkest in American history, but we know that light will ultimately prevail. Our elected officials,  in city halls, statehouses, and Congress must act now to preserve the ideals that actually make this country great.

“Together, we must make sure that our country does not devolve past the point of no return,” he said.

In a White House proclamation on Wednesday, Trump noted that, during his first administration, he restricted the entry of foreign nationals into the United States, “which successfully prevented national security threats from reaching our borders and which the Supreme Court upheld”.

In an executive order, “Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats,”  Trump said that “it is the policy of the United States to protect its citizens from aliens who intend to commit terrorist attacks, threaten our national security, espouse hateful ideology, or otherwise exploit the immigration laws for malevolent purposes.

“The United States must ensure that admitted aliens and aliens otherwise already present in the United States do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles, and do not advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists or other threats to our national security,” he added.

Trump said he directed the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence, “to identify countries throughout the world for which vetting and screening information is so deficient as to warrant a full or partial suspension on the admission of nationals from those countries.

“Many of these countries have also taken advantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals. As president, I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.”

According to the US Overstay Report, Trump said Haiti had a B 1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 31.38 per cent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 25.05 per cent.

“Additionally, hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitian aliens flooded into the United States during the Biden administration. This influx harms American communities by creating acute risks of increased overstay rates, establishment of criminal networks, and other national security threats.

“As is widely known, Haiti lacks a central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States,” Trump added.

On Cuba, he claimed that the Spanish-speaking Caribbean country is “a state sponsor of terrorism.

“The government of Cuba does not cooperate or share sufficient law enforcement information with the United States. Cuba has historically refused to accept back its removable nationals.”

According to the US Overstay Report, Cuba had a B-1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 7.69 per cent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 18.75 percent.

“The entry into the United States of nationals of Cuba as immigrants, and as nonimmigrants on B-1, B 2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J visas, is hereby suspended,” Trump declared, adding that “consular officers shall reduce the validity for any other nonimmigrant visa issued to nationals of Cuba to the extent permitted by law”.