Politics
See the Countries Under Trump’s New Travel Ban: List, Map and Charts
President Trump has targeted the citizens of a dozen countries as part of a new ban on travel to the United States and restricted travel for those from several more countries.
The restrictions touch more parts of the world and could affect more people than similar travel bans that were introduced during the first Trump administration.
All travelers who are citizens of countries in the first tier will be barred entry, while certain types of visas will be suspended for those countries in the second tier.
Shortly after he first took office in 2017, Mr. Trump tried to bar travelers from seven mostly Muslim-majority countries. Five of those countries are on the new list, plus several more countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela.
Mr. Trump’s order says the new travel ban does not apply to people with visas who are already in the United States, and it contains a few other exceptions. For example, Afghans eligible for the Special Immigrant Visa program, which is for those who helped the U.S. government during the war in Afghanistan, are excepted from the ban.
How many people come to the U.S. from these countries?
Last year, the State Department issued about 170,000 total visas to the 12 countries on the ban list. For most countries, the vast majority of those were nonimmigrant visitor visas for tourism, business or study. But for Afghans, Yemenis and Somalians, most were immigrant visas, typically allocated to immediate relatives of U.S. citizens or to skilled workers who are sponsored by their employers.
Permanent immigrant and temporary nonimmigrant visas issued in 2024
Visas previously issued to countries now on the travel ban list
What happened under the previous travel bans?
The introduction of the 2017 travel ban led to immediate chaos and confusion as hundreds of travelers were detained at airports across the country and more than 60,000 visas were provisionally revoked. Federal judges blocked the ban within a week.
Overall, travel from the countries banned in 2017 was relatively low to begin with, though people from Iran and Syria had arrived in the thousands each month. A back-and-forth in the courts delayed implementation, and then the Covid pandemic hit, halting travel globally.
But after January 2021, when President Biden lifted the bans, travel from many of those countries, most notably Iran, more than rebounded.
International visitor arrivals by country of citizenship
Travel to the U.S. from countries barred under 2017 travel ban
Mr. Trump ended up issuing four travel bans in his first term, with each version modifying its predecessor in order to pass legal scrutiny. It was almost a year before any ban actually took effect.
Here is a look back at the evolution of the travel bans under the first Trump administration from 2017 through 2020:
Jan. 27, 2017
First travel ban introduced. Entry into the U.S. is barred for people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen for 90 days.
Feb. 3, 2017
A federal judge temporarily blocks the ban in Washington v. Trump.
Mar. 6, 2017
Second travel ban introduced. Iraq is removed from the list. The ban also exempts those with an existing green card or valid visa. Mar. 15, 2017
Sept. 24, 2017
Third travel ban introduced. Entry is barred for most citizens of Chad, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela and Yemen. Iranian nationals with valid student and exchange visitor visas are allowed entry. Several parties sue to block the ban. Dec. 4, 2017
The Supreme Court allows the third ban to take effect while legal challenges against it continue.
April 10, 2018
Travel restrictions on Chad are removed after the country satisfies the administration’s security concerns.
June 26, 2018
Jan. 31, 2020
Fourth travel ban introduced. Immigrants from Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania are barred from entering the United States, but tourists and others entering on a temporary basis are not.
Jan. 20, 2021
President Biden takes office and immediately revokes all of the Trump travel bans.
The Trump administration this week instructed federal prosecutors to use terrorism statutes to target Mexican officials complicit in the narcotics trade, a significant escalation in its campaign against drug trafficking from Mexico, according to a U.S. official familiar with the remarks.
That new directive was announced Wednesday by Aakash Singh, an associate deputy attorney general, during an internal conference call with prosecutors in regional offices and represents an aggressive new tactic in the administration’s counternarcotics strategy that is almost certain to further strain its relationship with Mexico.
The initiative is the latest expansion of a hard-line policy that has defined President Trump’s agenda since his return to the White House last year, when he signed an executive order designating Latin American drug cartels as terrorist organizations. Within months, the U.S. military began blowing up boats in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean, killing nearly 200 people the administration says are drug smugglers.
The Justice Department directive, which has not been previously reported, comes two weeks after federal prosecutors in New York indicted the governor of Mexico’s Sinaloa state, who is also a member of the country’s governing party, and nine other current and former Mexican officials. Days earlier, the death of two Central Intelligence Agency officers in a car crash in Mexico revealed a covert element of the White House’s clampdown on cartels. The developments have sharply intensified cross-border tensions.
Mr. Singh’s role includes setting priorities for the 93 U.S. attorneys, and his marching orders for them on Wednesday were blunt and strikingly undiplomatic.
“We should be tripling the number of indictments of corrupt government officials in Mexico who are using their power and their positions to enable terrorists and monsters who traffic in misery and poison,” he told colleagues, according to the U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Prior U.S. indictments accusing Latin American officials of drug crimes have frayed bilateral relationships that include cooperation on many fronts. But Mr. Singh seemed to relish that prospect as he urged prosecutors to charge Mexican officials with providing material support to terrorist organizations, in addition to drug crimes.
“If that is an unwelcome development for Mexican government officials and they are offended that we’re doing that, I cannot think of a single thing I care about less,” he said. “If we are shaming and embarrassing them in the process, then that is the cherry on top for us.”
The Justice Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment.
President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has made clear she is not happy with the U.S. decision last month to charge a sitting Mexican governor, Rubén Rocha Moya, and other officials with collaborating with drug cartels. She has refused to arrest Mr. Rocha, criticizing U.S. officials for not providing sufficient evidence, and she has repeatedly framed the accusations against him as a potential affront to Mexican sovereignty.
Mr. Rocha, who has temporarily stepped down, has denied the charges, instead accusing the Trump administration of politically targeting him to undermine Ms. Sheinbaum’s political party.
On Friday, the Mexican government said that one of the other indicted officials, Gerardo Mérida Sánchez, the former state security chief in Sinaloa, turned himself in to U.S. authorities earlier this week, crossing the border into Arizona from Nogales, Mexico.
A second indicted official, Enrique Díaz, a former finance official in Sinaloa, was arrested in Europe, according to a Mexican official who spoke on the condition of anonymity without authorization to speak publicly.
Ms. Sheinbaum said on Friday that she had “had a cordial and excellent conversation with President Trump,” in which they “reaffirmed the work we’re doing on security and the talks on trade.”
While the Justice Department has not publicly signaled its intention to charge Mexican politicians with terrorism crimes, senior administration officials made clear in recent days that the indictment of Mr. Rocha and other officials would not be a one-off.
“They are just as much responsible for the death and destruction of record amounts of Americans by cooperating, by conspiring, by helping producing this poison to come across the border and come into our country,” Terrance C. Cole, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday. He added, “This is just the start.”
Taking a harder line against Mexican politicians is a shift in U.S. strategy, which has largely focused on prosecuting cartel leaders. Most recently, Mexico has sent more than 90 detained cartel operatives to the United States, including the notorious cartel boss Rafael Caro Quintero, who was convicted of masterminding the murder of a D.E.A. agent more than 40 years ago.
Those transfers reflect stronger cooperation on security issues under the Trump and Sheinbaum administrations, particularly compared with the relationship under Ms. Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who pursued a less-lethal approach known as “hugs, not bullets.”
But the U.S. investigations into Mexican politicians have put Ms. Sheinbaum in a difficult political position. Many members of her dominant political party, Morena, have been deeply suspicious of the U.S. government, and several of the politicians who could be targeted belong to Morena.
Yet it seems likely that the cartel defendants Mexico sent to the United States could now help lead to such cases. Earlier this month, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, said that those drug traffickers had shared valuable intelligence.
“One consequence of having a lot of the leaders of some of these cartels brought here over the past year, in cooperation with the Mexican government, is some of them will likely want to cooperate,” Mr. Blanche said in an interview at a border security industry event. “That cooperation could lead to additional charges.”
By publicly signaling its intention to go after politicians who have helped cartels smuggle cocaine, fentanyl and other drugs into the United States, the Trump administration may have a number of goals, analysts said.
At face value, the threat could have a chilling effect on government officials who actively or tacitly support the trade, and whose political campaigns can be bankrolled by kingpins. But it could also give U.S. officials leverage as they negotiate the future of a trade alliance that includes Canada, Mexico and the United States ahead of a July 1 deadline. Mr. Trump’s frequent threats to carry out unilateral military action against the cartels on Mexican soil also hang over those talks.
“Many people will see this as a heavy-handed move against Mexico, which under Sheinbaum has done much more than any of her predecessors on these issues,” said Roberta S. Jacobson, who served as ambassador to Mexico during the Obama administration.
Because many of the officials the Justice Department could charge are from Ms. Sheinbaum’s Morena Party, “it could put her in perhaps the worst possible position,” Ms. Jacobson said.
Top officials in Ms. Sheinbaum’s government are frustrated with how the Trump administration has handled the indictment of Mr. Rocha, the Sinaloa governor, according to the Mexican official who spoke about Mr. Díaz.
Her government has handed over virtually every criminal defendant the Trump administration has asked for, this person said, yet it has received little information from their interrogations, making it difficult to collaborate on investigations. At the same time, Ms. Sheinbaum has publicly complained that the United States has denied dozens of extradition requests from Mexico.
The United States has charged top officials in Latin America with drug crimes for decades. Such cases have often scrambled power structures and political dynamics across the region, but the drug trade remains a behemoth that generates billions in profits, driven by strong demand from Americans.
High-profile prosecutions the Justice Department has pursued in recent years include the cases of Nicolás Maduro, the former leader of Venezuela seized in Caracas during a brazen operation carried out by U.S. Special Operations forces in January, and of Genaro García Luna, a former top law enforcement official in Mexico. Mr. Maduro is awaiting trial alongside his wife, Cilia Flores, in New York. Mr. García Luna was sentenced to 38 years in prison in 2024, following his conviction at trial in New York.
Another prominent case, involving Juan Orlando Hernández, the former president of Honduras, had an unusual twist. A little more than a year after a judge sentenced him to 45 years in prison for his role in the trade of 400 tons of cocaine, Mr. Trump pardoned him, heeding a request from Roger J. Stone Jr., a longtime adviser, and other right-wing figures.
One American case against a senior Mexican official — Salvador Cienfuegos, a former defense minister who was arrested at the Los Angeles airport in 2020 and charged with having ties to the violent H-2 cartel — backfired badly. The Justice Department dropped its charges against Mr. Cienfuegos under pressure from the Mexican government, which threatened to expel U.S. agents and subsequently passed legislation that severely restricted bilateral security cooperation.
Going forward, Mr. Singh, a top aide to Mr. Blanche known for an abrasive style, said that the Justice Department intended to take a zero-leniency approach. In addition to charging politicians with drug and firearms felonies, which can lead to lengthy prison terms, prosecutors should seek to also charge them with material support for terrorist groups, he said.
Convictions can result in prison terms of up to 15 years, or life, if the underlying offense resulted in a death.
But so far, the Justice Department has used terrorism charges sparingly against cartels. A year ago, prosecutors charged two leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel with material support for terrorism in connection with their alleged efforts to smuggle large amounts of drugs into the United States.
Mr. Singh said the department wanted to pursue more of those cases. “We need to be treating these people like the terrorists they are,” he said.
Maria Abi-Habib contributed reporting.
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President Donald Trump returned from his high-stakes summit in China with President Xi Jinping touting trade progress and warmer ties, but several of the biggest pressure points in the U.S.-China relationship — from trade and Taiwan, to AI and human rights — appeared to end without firm public breakthroughs.
“We had a great stay. It was an amazing period of time. President Xi’s an incredible guy. We’ve made a lot of great trade deals,” Trump said Friday aboard Air Force One while returning to the White House.
The trip gave Trump several economic talking points, including potential Chinese purchases of Boeing aircraft, U.S. soybeans and American energy, but public readouts and Trump’s recent remarks show some major questions went unresolved.
WHAT XI WANTS FROM TRUMP AS BEIJING SEEKS LEVERAGE IN HIGH-STAKES SUMMIT
Trump said the summit produced “fantastic trade deals.” (Evan Vucci/Pool Reuters via AP)
Taiwan
During the summit, Xi warned that mishandling the Taiwan issue could lead to “clashes and even conflicts” between the two countries.
Trump said “he heard [Xi] out” on Taiwan, adding, “He does not want to see a fight for independence because that would be a very strong confrontation.”
There was no pledge from Beijing to reduce military pressure or any visible easing of the core Taiwan dispute.
TRUMP WARNS TAIWAN NOT TO EXPECT BLANK CHECK FROM US MILITARY AFTER INTENSE XI SUMMIT
President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping after visiting the Zhongnanhai Garden in Beijing on May 15, 2026. (Evan Vucci/Pool Photo via AP)
Lawmakers have pressed Trump over Taiwan’s security and U.S. arms sales to the island, though Washington does not formally recognize Taiwan as a sovereign state and maintains a longstanding “One China” policy.
“We’ve had it for thousands of years. And then, at a certain period of time, they left that they were going to get it back. They had the Korean War. A lot of things happened and all this. But no, yeah — Taiwan, he feels very strongly. I made no commitment either way,” Trump said, referring to Xi’s view of Taiwan and Beijing’s historical claim to the island.
A White House official said Trump is expected to decide soon whether to move forward with a new Taiwan arms package, pointing to his December 2025 approval of $11.1 billion in arms sales to Taiwan and arguing that his record remains consistent with decades of U.S. policy.
The official also noted that Trump approved more Taiwan arms sales during his first term than any previous president, and said his first-year total in the second term exceeded the full amount approved during former President Biden’s four years in office.
TRUMP SPEAKS WITH CHINESE PRESIDENT XI, WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL CONFIRMS
Human Rights
The cases of jailed Hong Kong media mogul Jimmy Lai and detained house-church pastor Ezra Jin loomed over the summit, with Trump saying Xi is “giving very serious consideration” to releasing Pastor Jin, though Lai’s future may be less certain.
“That’s a tougher one. I did bring it up. It’s a tough one for him. It’s a tough one,” Trump said. “He said Jimmy Lai is a tough one for him to do. You know, he went through a lot — right and wrong, he went through a lot. So he told me that would be a tough one. He said he’s going to strongly consider the pastor.”
President Donald Trump speaks during a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Jin, also known as Ezra Jin Mingri, is a Chinese house church pastor whose family and advocates have urged Washington to press Beijing for his release. Lai is a British citizen, Hong Kong media tycoon and pro-democracy activist who has been jailed under Hong Kong’s national security law.
The two are often linked in coverage focused on human rights, freedom of the press, and China’s crackdown on dissent.
Neither case appeared to produce a public release commitment before Trump departed Beijing.
Lai’s daughter, Claire, commended Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio for their “continuous commitment to freeing my father and securing his freedom” during an appearance on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” Friday.
“Of course, the dream was that he would fly back with my father this time, but I am still extremely confident that he is the president and this is the administration that will secure my father’s freedom,” Lai said.
AI and Tech Race
China’s AI advances remain a major concern for U.S. policymakers and technology leaders as Washington weighs how to preserve its edge in advanced chips, computing power and export controls without accelerating Beijing’s push to build domestic alternatives.
DONALD TRUMP DETAILS ‘MOST EXCITING PART’ OF CHINA TRADE AGREEMENT
President Donald Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping greet children during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Trump said on Air Force One that discussions about chips did not come up.
U.S. officials said China continues to weigh whether to buy advanced U.S. chips or accelerate domestic alternatives, while Trump said the two sides discussed the possibility of AI guardrails.
TRUMP REVERSES COURSE ON MIDDLE EAST TECH POLICY, BUT WILL IT BE ENOUGH TO COUNTER CHINA?
“As to whether the Chinese are going to buy [U.S. chips] or not, they’re making their own determinations,” U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said Friday on Bloomberg TV.
“They’re very committed to domestic production. They often see U.S. high tech as a threat to them. If we’re ahead of the game on AI chips, sometimes they feel that can stop their own growth,” he added.
Trump said China may “want to try and develop their own” chips.
TRUMP ANNOUNCES CHINA WILL RESTART RARE EARTH MINERAL SHIPMENTS TO US AFTER PRODUCTIVE CALL
President Donald Trump meets with China’s President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Trade and tariffs
At the final meeting between the two leaders, Trump touted what he called “fantastic trade deals” during the summit.
Trump said China agreed to purchase 200 Boeing planes and expressed interest in buying as many as 750 once the first deliveries are completed.
While few details have been released regarding the specific agreements reached, Trump also said agricultural deals were pledged while at the same time stating tariffs were not discussed.
“The farmers are going to be very happy. They’re going to be buying billions of dollars of soybeans,” Trump said.
The president added during a gaggle on Air Force One during his trip home that he and Xi did not discuss tariffs during the meetings, even though such duties have served as one of Trump’s central tools for pressuring Beijing on trade.
TRUMP PUSHES XI ON TRADE AFTER SUPREME COURT RULING DENTS KEY CHINA PRESSURE TOOL
“We didn’t discuss tariffs – I mean they’re paying tariffs. They’re paying substantial tariffs,” he said at one point.
The talks come as Trump’s tariff agenda faced a setback after a Supreme Court ruling limited his use of emergency powers to impose duties, which cut directly into one of his preferred tools for pressuring Beijing.
Trump also suggested an energy deal was close, saying China could begin buying oil from Texas, Louisiana and Alaska.
“They’re going to go to Texas. We’re going to start sending Chinese ships to Texas and to Louisiana and to Alaska. And I think that was another thing that was agreed to. That’s a big thing,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Temple of Heaven in Beijing on May 14, 2026. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo)
Iran was an area where Trump could point to a clearer diplomatic win, saying Xi told him China would not provide military equipment to Tehran and that both leaders agreed Iran cannot obtain a nuclear weapon.
But broader concerns remain over Beijing’s economic support for Iran through oil purchases, dual-use exports and intermediary networks.
China remains a major buyer of Iranian crude despite U.S. sanctions.
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Trump said that Xi and his wife will visit the U.S. in September.
A new report by the California Department of Justice found that conditions at immigrant detention facilities in the state have worsened as surging arrests under the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign led to overcrowding and insufficient medical care.
For the report, which was released Friday, California Justice Department staff, along with correctional and healthcare experts, toured all seven facilities that existed in 2025 (an eighth facility, the Central Valley Annex in McFarland, began receiving detainees in April). The team analyzed internal documents and detainee records, and interviewed detention staff and 194 detainees.
“The Trump Administration’s mass deportation campaign has led to a shocking increase in detainee populations — and facilities have been alarmingly unprepared to meet this new demand,” said Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta in a statement. “During their inspections, my team found evidence of inadequate medical care and heard countless reports of disturbing, unsafe, and unsanitary conditions and a lack of basic necessities.”
Bonta was scheduled to discuss the report’s findings at a news conference Friday morning.
The inspections were possible because California enacted a law during the first Trump administration requiring state oversight and public reports detailing the conditions of immigrant detention facilities. This is the fifth report released by the California Department of Justice since 2019.
Such reports have taken on outsized significance as the Trump administration has whittled down the Department of Homeland Security’s own oversight mechanisms; for example, it has gutted staff at the offices of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and the Immigrant Detention Ombudsman.
According to the report, the detainee population in California grew 162%, from 2,300 to more than 6,000 detainees, between site visits in 2023 and those in 2025. Most detainees had no criminal history and were classified as low security.
Collectively, the facilities have capacity to hold up to nearly 8,200 detainees. Six people have died in ICE custody in California since the start of 2025.
Inspectors found that staffing levels failed to keep pace with the growing numbers of detainees, particularly at the California City and Adelanto facilities. The Trump administration has limited access to bond, including for vulnerable populations, such as pregnant women and people with serious medical conditions.
The intake process for new detainees, which includes a medical and mental health screening, is supposed to take place within 12 hours of their arrival. But detainees at several facilities reported waiting days or weeks before receiving their classification, housing assignment and medical screening, the report says. While waiting, some slept on the floor without access to water and other basic necessities.
At the Adelanto facility, detainees said water coolers remained empty for hours. Justice Department staff saw murky drinking water come out of the tap in the women’s housing unit.
At the Golden State Annex in McFarland and at the Mesa Verde ICE Processing Center in Bakersfield, detainees said they spent at least $50 per week on commissary items so they wouldn’t go hungry. Across most facilities, detainees reported improperly cooked food, a lack of dietary or allergy accommodations and irregular mealtimes.
Detainees at all facilities reported delays in medical treatment, including emergency care, which led to preventable crises. At Mesa Verde, for example, the report says that “Medical care delays, including specialty care and referrals, were widespread and appeared to be caused by delays in approvals by ICE Health Service Corps and cancelled or dropped referrals due to transfers between facilities.”
Basic necessities are also an issue, according to the report. At the California City facility, detainees said they got so cold that they cut the ends off socks to make improvised sleeves and covered the air vents in their cells with sheets of paper.
According to the report, Otay Mesa is the only detention center in California with a policy requiring that detainees be strip searched after being visited by anyone other than their attorney. Detainees there have long said the practice is dehumanizing and invasive.
The state law requiring the detention facility inspections expires next year. A bill by State Sen. María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) would make the inspections permanent. Another state bill, by Sen. Steve Padilla (D-San Diego), would prevent the excessive markup of products sold at detention center commissaries, where many items are sold at an inflated value.
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