Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on Thursday that President Donald Trump’s full travel ban will be expanded to include more than 30 countries.
Noem confirmed recent reports that the Department of Homeland Security is considering expanding the list to at least 30 countries beyond the initial 19 countries already placed under a travel ban, but declined to comment on the specific number of total countries on the list.
“The president is continuing to evaluate countries,” the Cabinet secretary said on Fox News’s The Ingraham Angle on Thursday evening.
“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 asked.
After meeting with Trump this week, Noem recommended a full travel ban for numerous countries deemed too “high risk” for national security reasons. Her statement came in response to last week’s shooting in which a 29-year-old Afghan national allegedly ambushed two National Guard troops near the White House in Washington, D.C., the day before Thanksgiving.
Afghanistan was one of 19 countries that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced would be affected by an indefinite pause in all pending immigration requests for nationals belonging to those countries. Afghanistan and the other 18 nations — Burma, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen — were previously included in Trump’s June 4 proclamation for full and partial travel restrictions.
Trump has not commented further on Noem’s recommendation, but on Thanksgiving, he posted that he planned to “permanently pause” immigration from “third world countries” following the shooting.
The suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has since been charged with multiple counts. He pleaded not guilty to the charges this week.
One of the National Guard members, Sarah Beckstrom, died. The second member, Andrew Wolfe, had been critically wounded but is slowly recovering.
AHEAD OF HOLIDAYS, NOEM ADVISES TRUMP TO IMPOSE FULL TRAVEL BAN
Trump met Wolfe’s family in the Oval Office on Thursday.
“The great family of Andrew Wolfe — Our wonderful National Guardsman who was badly injured protecting the Capital of the United States of America. He is in the process of healing,” the president wrote on Truth Social, sharing a picture of the family. “His parents, brother, and all of his friends are praying. I just met them in the Oval Office — They are fantastic American Patriots!”
