Kristi Noem revealed Thursday that upwards of 30 countries will be on the Trump administration’s travel ban list.
The Homeland Security secretary told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that that number could go even higher.
“I won’t be specific on the number, but it’s over 30, and the president is continuing to evaluate countries,” Noem, 54, said.
In June, Trump, 79, established a travel ban on citizens of a dozen countries, mainly in the Middle East and Africa, and restricted travel from seven other countries.
Noem did not detail which countries would be added, but gave a similar rationale for the earlier travel restrictions.
“If they don’t have a stable government there, if they don’t have a country that can sustain itself and tell us who those individuals are and help us vet them, why should we allow people from that country to come here to the United States?” she said.
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
Trump said he would be putting a permanent stop on travel from “third-world” countries after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members last week in the capital. Administration officials have claimed that there was insufficient vetting in the program that the suspect allegedly used to settle in the U.S. in 2021.
Noem’s announcement came after a Monday meeting with the president in which she was “recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
Earlier this week, it was reported that some naturalization ceremonies for nationals from Venezuela, Iran and Afghanistan were canceled. Some naturalization interviews were also canceled, one immigration attorney told ABC News.
“The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best,” a DHS spokesperson told ABC. “Citizenship is a privilege, not a right. We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern.”
