Expanded travel ban takes effect

At 12:01 a.m. eastern standard time on 1 January 2026 the entry restrictions established by the 16 December 2025 proclamation, “Restricting and Limiting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the Security of the United States,” entered force for nationals of 39 designated countries who are outside the United States and do not hold a valid visa as of that date, plus holders of Palestinian Authority travel documents.¹ The proclamation expands Proclamation 10949 of 4 June 2025 (“Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats”), which had imposed full suspensions on 12 countries and partial suspensions on 7; the 16 December 2025 instrument operates in three tiers — full suspension, partial suspension, and heightened vetting — with country-by-country designations at the annex.²¹

1. The proclamation acts under § 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f), which authorises the President to “suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens” whose entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”³ In Trump v. Hawaii, 585 U.S. 667 (2018), the Court (Roberts, C.J., for a 5-4 majority; Sotomayor, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan, JJ., dissenting) held that ”§ 1182(f) exudes deference to the President in every clause” and that Proclamation 9645 was “squarely within the scope of Presidential authority under the INA.”⁴ Visa refusals at consular posts proceed under INA § 221(g) on § 212(f) grounds; port-of-entry inadmissibility findings are made under INA § 235, 8 U.S.C. § 1225, with expedited-removal procedures available under § 235(b)(1) where the traveller lacks documents under § 212(a)(7).⁵

2. Exceptions enumerated in the proclamation include U.S. lawful permanent residents; dual nationals travelling on a non-designated passport; A-1/A-2 and G-1 through G-4 visa holders and NATO visa holders; certain immediate relatives of U.S. citizens; adoption cases; Afghan Special Immigrant Visa holders; and case-by-case national-interest determinations by the Secretary of State.¹ The proclamation directs the Secretaries of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to submit 90-day reports on country-by-country compliance with U.S. information-sharing and identity-management requirements, which condition tier-movement decisions.¹

3. Refugee admissions are governed separately under INA § 207, 8 U.S.C. § 1157, subject to the annual Presidential Determination on refugee admissions; the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program was independently suspended by Executive Order 14163 of 20 January 2025, 90 Fed. Reg. 8459.⁶⁷ Litigation challenging the 16 December 2025 proclamation tracks the Trump v. Hawaii deference framework; any preliminary injunctive relief is constrained by the universal-injunction limits of Trump v. CASA, Inc., 145 S. Ct. 2540 (2025).⁸