3 Countries That Should Be Next On Trump’s Travel Ban List

The Trump administration announced Tuesday it would halt immigration applications from 19 countries — but there are three countries that should be added to the list.

Following the deadly suspected terrorist attack in Washington D.C., allegedly by an Afghan national let in through President Joe Biden’s reckless Operation Allies Welcome refugee resettlement program, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) instructed personnel to place a hold on all asylum applications “regardless of the alien’s country of nationality” and “place a hold on pending benefit requests for aliens” from 19 countries identified by the administration. The agency also ordered a “re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 is necessary.”

The announcement came after Department of Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem said on X: “Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom–not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.”

The 19 countries are: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

To be clear, the administration’s criteria for these countries is rooted in security concerns, namely that the U.S. cannot confirm whether these immigrants were properly vetted. But in addition to these security-driven freezes, the United States should add Mexico, China, and India for reasons that go beyond merely vetting.

According to a 2023 report from CNN, Mexicans “make up the largest group of immigrants in the US,” followed by India and China.

“These statistics include both immigrants who came to the United States legally and those who are living in the country without authorization” (aka illegally), CNN reported. When only accounting for illegal aliens in the U.S., the top six countries of origin were Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, India, Honduras, and China, the outlet continued, citing a 2021 Department of Homeland Security report.

But it’s obvious that we’re not importing “top-tier talent” from these countries that are either cartel-controlled, hostile to the U.S., or third-world. There is no compelling benefit to mass migration from any of these countries (legal or illegal), and in many cases, there are clear downsides.

Take Mexico, for example. When mass riots erupted this summer in Los Angeles over the deportation of illegal aliens, Mexican flags flooded the streets as symbols of open defiance against U.S. law. The New York Times gushed that the rioters waved the Mexican flag to show “pride in their heritage,” but in reality, it was an unmistakable show of competing national loyalty from people living in this country, both legally and illegally, who have no allegiance to our laws and customs.

And it’s not just what’s happening in our streets, it’s also about what’ happening in Mexico’s ruling class.

As The Federalist’s John Daniel Davidson explained in these pages, Mexico’s ruling MORENA Party under President Claudia Sheinbaum has effectively “merged with the country’s major cartels.” After Mexico “essentially lost the drug war, … the state has been so thoroughly infiltrated by the cartels, particularly Sinaloa, that today it’s difficult to tell where one stops and the other begins.”

Citing the Texas Public Policy Foundation, Davidson also noted how “the Mexican regime has become increasingly hostile to American sovereignty, repeatedly threatening to interfere in U.S. elections and target American lawmakers for attempting to secure the border and fight the cartels.” The “inflammatory rhetoric of the Mexican state has become … ‘normative,’ and ‘demonstrates the Mexican government’s willingness to wield political influence over Mexican and Hispanic populations in the United States.’”

The Mexican regime sees Mexicans living in the United States as a “strategic asset,” much like how the Chinese Communist Party “regards every ethnic Chinese person living inside the United States as a subject of the PRC,” as Davidson points out.

There is no legitimate reason to admit millions of foreigners from countries whose governments view our domestic population as leverage.

Speaking of China, that nation perhaps should have been at the top of the list. This is a nation that sent a spy balloon drifting across the United States with essentially no repercussions. Chinese nationals are buying up land near sensitive military sites. Other Chinese nationals have been charged for conspiring to smuggle biological materials into the U.S. or voting illegally in our elections. And given China’s open hostility toward America and its espionage tactics, the case for including China on any travel-ban list is obvious, especially if the purpose is to protect national security.

Then, of course, there is India, a top source of both legal and illegal immigration. Despite the insistence that India is sending their best engineers and highly-skilled workers, Americans are being displaced via the H-1B visa scam for low to mid-level jobs.

What’s more, India is a developing country with vast social, cultural, and religious differences from the U.S, and mass migration from such a place makes assimilation of Indians already here extremely difficult (as for any other country).

Unless an immigrant — from any country (yes, that includes the U.K., France, Italy, Australia, etc.) can assimilate to and promote American values and principles and serve as a net benefit to the country, then there is no reason to import millions of them.

Trump’s decision to freeze immigration from 19 countries is a necessary first step, but the omission of Mexico, China, and India should also be reconsidered — if it hasn’t already.

And, if America is really serious about protecting its sovereignty, then there should be a complete moratorium on all immigration, from anywhere.

Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2