Overview

• The State Department memo, confirmed by AFP, identifies 36 nations across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and the Pacific for potential full entry restrictions.
• Citizens from the initial 12 banned countries were barred from US entry on June 9, with partial visa suspensions affecting seven additional states.
• If implemented, the expansion could touch nearly one in five people worldwide living in the listed countries.
• The White House defends the expanded measures as essential safeguards against foreign terrorist threats to US citizens.
• US diplomats in the targeted countries have been instructed to secure commitments from local authorities to meet revised security standards by the memo’s deadline.