Dismay and disbelief as Trump bans visitors from a dozen countries

WASHINGTON - Officials and residents in countries whose citizens will soon be banned from visiting the United States expressed dismay and disbelief on June 5 at President Donald Trumps new sweeping travel ban as his administration intensifies its immigration crackdown.

Mr Trump signed a proclamation on June 4 barring citizens of 12 countries from entering the US starting on June 9, asserting that the restrictions were necessary to protect against foreign terrorists.

The order was reminiscent of a similar move Mr Trump implemented during his first term in office from 2017 to 2021, when he barred travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations.

That directive faced court challenges and went through several iterations before the US Supreme Court upheld the ban in 2018.

Former president Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Mr Trump, repealed that ban in 2021, calling it a stain on our national conscience.

But the new ban is much more expansive and covers Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

Citizens of seven other countries - Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela - will be partially restricted.

A senior diplomat with the Sudanese Foreign Ministry, who asked not to be named, said Mr Trumps justification did not stand up to scrutiny.

“Sudanese people have never been known to pose a terrorist threat anywhere in the world,” the official said.

Chad President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno said he had instructed his government to stop granting visas to US citizens in response to Mr Trumps action.

Chad has neither planes to offer nor billions of dollars to give, but Chad has its dignity and its pride, he said in a Facebook post, referring to countries such as Qatar, which gifted the US a luxury plane for Mr Trumps use and promised