It is unclear whether citizens of the 43 countries included who have valid visas or permanent residency will be affected.
14ymedio, Havana, 15 March 2025 — The Trump administration wants to restrict entry into the United States to citizens of some 43 countries, including Cuba, on the “red list.” According to The New York Times ( NYT ), which obtained a draft of the measure, the lists were drawn up weeks ago by the State Department and were under review for 60 days, to be sent to the White House next week.
None of the officials who spoke anonymously with the newspaper were able to clarify whether citizens of these countries who have valid visas or permanent residency in the US—such as the hundreds of Cubans admitted through humanitarian parole— will be affected.
The draft could be subject to changes before reaching the Oval Office, but for now it includes a list of 11 countries whose citizens would be, according to the NYT, “strictly banned from entering the United States.” These include, in addition to Cuba, other old enemies of Washington: Venezuela, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, as well as the Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan, which inexplicably appears on that list.
A second “orange list” includes 10 other states: Russia, Belarus, Eritrea, Haiti, Laos, Myanmar, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, and Turkmenistan. Entry for citizens of these countries may be restricted, though not prohibited.
For citizens of those nationalities, entry may be restricted, although not prohibited.
“In those cases, wealthy business travelers could be allowed entry, but not those traveling on immigrant or tourist visas. Citizens on that list would also be subject to mandatory in-person visa interviews,” the anonymous officials familiar with the matter said.
Finally, the “yellow list” includes the remaining 22 countries, whose governments will have 60 days to “correct perceived deficiencies, facing the threat of being moved to one of the other lists if they fail to comply.” The irregularities could include a lack of information provided by each country on travelers or inadequate security practices in immigration procedures, such as the issuance of passports.
This part of the list includes Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Gambia, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Vanuatu, and Zimbabwe.
Other “problematic” countries for Washington, such as Nicaragua, are not included in the interim report.
The lists were compiled by diplomatic and security officials and are being reviewed by embassies and regional offices of the State Department, as well as security specialists from other departments and intelligence agencies. “They are commenting on whether the descriptions of deficiencies in certain countries are accurate or whether there are political reasons—such as avoiding disrupting cooperation in priority areas—to reconsider the inclusion of some,” the NYT emphasizes.
Upon his arrival at the White House on January 20, Donald Trump signed the so-called “Protecting the American People Against Invasion”
According to the NYT, upon his arrival at the White House on January 20, Donald Trump signed the Protecting the American People Against Invasion Act. He also called for investigations into countries that provide “deficient” information about their citizens to the point that it could justify a total or partial ban on their entry into the country.
He then gave the State Department 60 days to comply with the executive order and deliver the report.
Many of the countries included in the draft had already been sanctioned with similar measures during Trump’s previous term. In January 2017, immediately after taking office, the Republican signed an executive order barring entry to the US to nationals of seven Muslim-majority states: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Subsequently, North Korea and Venezuela—in this case only for officials and their families, although it has now been added to the red list—entered the list, while Sudan and Iraq were also removed. The courts approved the measure.
Among those included in the new draft is Afghanistan, a case that is causing strong disputes within the Government, especially over war refugees, according to the NYT .
In the case of Cuba, the fact that its government admits few deportations could be the reason why the State Department included it on the red list. There are more than 42,000 Cubans awaiting expulsion, but the regime evaluates each return individually and, to date, has only admitted 104 migrants so far this year.
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