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President Donald Trump’s new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries took effect on Monday.
The new proclamation, which Trump signed on Wednesday, also imposes new travel restrictions on people from seven additional countries who are outside the U.S. and don’t have a valid visa.
The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, which include Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The new visa restrictions apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries is set to take effect Monday amid rising tension over the president’s escalating campaign of immigration enforcement.
The new proclamation, which Trump signed on Wednesday, applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. It also imposes heightened restrictions on people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don’t hold a valid visa.
The new ban does not revoke visas previously issued to people from countries on the list, according to guidance issued Friday to all U.S. diplomatic missions. However, unless an applicant meets narrow criteria for an exemption to the ban, his or her application will be rejected starting Monday. Travelers with previously issued visas should still be able to enter the U.S. even after the ban takes effect.
Haitian-American Elvanise Louis-Juste, who was at the airport Sunday in Newark, New Jersey, awaiting a flight to her home state of Florida, said many Haitians wanting to come to the U.S. are simply seeking to escape violence and unrest in their country.
“I have family in Haiti, so it’s pretty upsetting to see and hear,” Louis-Juste, 23, said of the travel ban. “I don’t think it’s a good thing. I think it’s very upsetting.”
Many immigration experts say the new ban is designed to beat any court challenge by focusing on the visa application process and appears more carefully crafted than a hastily written executive order during Trump’s first term that denied entry to citizens of mainly Muslim countries.
In a video posted Wednesday on social media, Trump said nationals of countries included in the ban pose “terrorism-related” and “public-safety” risks, as well as risks of overstaying their visas. He also said some of these countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their citizens.
His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report about tourists, businesspeople, and students who overstay U.S. visas and arrive by air or sea, singling out countries with high percentages of nationals who remain after their visas expired.
Trump also tied the new ban to a terrorist attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The man charged in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. U.S. officials say he overstayed a tourist visa.
The ban was quickly denounced by groups that provide aid and resettlement help to refugees.
“This policy is not about national security — it is about sowing division and vilifying communities that are seeking safety and opportunity in the United States,” said Abby Maxman, president of Oxfam America, a nonprofit international relief organization.
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro’s government condemned the travel ban, characterizing it in a statement as a “stigmatization and criminalization campaign” against Venezuelans.
Over the weekend, Los Angeles was rocked by chaos following a series of workplace raids conducted by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These actions are part of a broader Trump administration push to ramp up deportations, a strategy reportedly championed by senior White House adviser Stephen Miller and other top officials.
ICE focused its efforts on locations known for employing large numbers of immigrants, such as the city’s garment district and a Home Depot in Paramount. According to Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, at least seven separate raids took place, resulting in more than 45 detentions. Federal authorities have claimed that the raids targeted workers using false documents, and the Department of Homeland Security later reported 118 arrests in LA over the week, though it’s unclear how many were from workplace raids specifically.
The raids triggered immediate protests, which escalated into violent confrontations with law enforcement. Among those detained was David Huerta, president of SEIU California and SEIU-United Service Workers West, who was arrested for allegedly interfering with federal officers. His union insists he was peacefully observing and plans to rally in his support.
Former President Trump responded to the unrest by criticizing California Governor Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, accusing them of incompetence and claiming—without evidence—that protesters were paid agitators. The White House announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, marking the first time since 1965 that a president has sent in the Guard without a request from the state’s governor.
A notable shift from Trump’s earlier campaign rhetoric is evident: while he previously promised to focus deportations on “criminals,” the administration now appears to be targeting all undocumented immigrants, treating unlawful presence as a criminal act. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt justified this by stating that all those arrested broke the nation’s laws.
Workplace raids were a hallmark of Trump’s first term, but experts question their effectiveness and warn of severe economic consequences. Mass deportations could devastate industries like construction, food service, and healthcare, potentially shrinking the US economy by as much as $1.6 trillion over 20 years and triggering a recession.
Despite these realities, a recent CBS News/YouGov poll shows that most Americans believe the administration is prioritizing the removal of “dangerous criminals.” However, the current raids demonstrate that ordinary workers, regardless of criminal record, are being targeted.
As Angelica Salas put it, “Looking like an immigrant does not make you a criminal.”
President Donald Trump says he’s deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles to respond to immigration protests, over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
It’s not the first time Trump has activated the National Guard to quell protests. In 2020, he asked governors of several states to send troops to Washington, D.C., to respond to demonstrations that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors he asked agreed, sending troops to the federal district. The governors who refused the request were allowed to do so, keeping their troops on home soil.
This time, however, Trump is acting in opposition to Newsom, who, under normal circumstances, would retain control and command of California’s National Guard. While Trump said that federalizing the troops was necessary to “address the lawlessness” in California, the Democratic governor said the move was “purposely inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
Here are some things to know about when and how the president can deploy troops on U.S. soil.
The laws are a bit vague
Generally, federal military forces are not allowed to carry out civilian law enforcement duties against U.S. citizens except in times of emergency.
An 18th-century wartime law called the Insurrection Act is the main legal mechanism that a president can use to activate the military or National Guard during times of rebellion or unrest. But Trump didn’t invoke the Insurrection Act on Saturday.
Instead, he relied on a similar federal law that allows the president to federalize National Guard troops under certain circumstances. He federalized part of California’s National Guard under what is known as Title 10 authority, which places him, not the governor, atop the chain of command, according to Newsom’s office.
The National Guard is a hybrid entity that serves both state and federal interests. Often it operates under state command and control, using state funding. Sometimes National Guard troops will be assigned by their state to serve federal missions, remaining under state command but using federal funding.
The law cited by Trump’s proclamation places National Guard troops under federal command. The law says that can be done under three circumstances: When the U.S. is invaded or in danger of invasion; when there is a rebellion or danger of rebellion against the authority of the U.S. government, or when the President is unable to “execute the laws of the United States,” with regular forces.
But the law also says that orders for those purposes “shall be issued through the governors of the States.” It’s not immediately clear if the president can activate National Guard troops without the order of that state’s governor.
The role of the National Guard troops will be limited
Notably, Trump’s proclamation says the National Guard troops will play a supporting role by protecting ICE officers as they enforce the law, rather than having the troops perform law enforcement work.
Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center who specializes in military justice and national security law, says that’s because the National Guard troops can’t legally engage in ordinary law enforcement activities unless Trump first invokes the Insurrection Act.
Vladeck said the move raises the risk that the troops could end up using force while filling that “protection” role. The move could also be a precursor to other, more aggressive troop deployments down the road, he wrote on his website.
“There’s nothing these troops will be allowed to do that, for example, the ICE officers against whom these protests have been directed could not do themselves,” Vladeck wrote.
Troops have been mobilized before
The Insurrection Act and related laws were used during the Civil Rights era to protect activists and students desegregating schools. President Dwight Eisenhower sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Arkansas, to protect Black students integrating Central High School after that state’s governor activated the National Guard to keep the students out.
George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to respond to riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King.
National Guard troops have been deployed for a variety of emergencies, including the COVID pandemic, hurricanes, and other natural disasters. But generally, those deployments are carried out with the agreement of the governors of the responding states.
Trump is willing to use the military on home soil
On Sunday, Trump was asked if he plans to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, and he said, “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” Trump didn’t elaborate.
In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to quell protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors agreed, sending troops to the federal district.
At the time, Trump also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act for protests following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis – an intervention rarely seen in modern American history. But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”
Trump never did invoke the Insurrection Act during his first term.
But while campaigning for his second term, he suggested that it would change. Trump told an audience in Iowa in 2023 that he was prevented from using the military to suppress violence in cities and states during his first term, and said if the issue came up again in his next term, “I’m not waiting.”
Trump also promised to deploy the National Guard to help carry out his immigration enforcement goals, and his top adviser Stephen Miller explained how that would be carried out: Troops under sympathetic Republican governors would send troops to nearby states that refuse to participate, Miller said on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” in 2023.
After Trump announced he was federalizing the National Guard troops on Saturday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said other measures could follow.
Hegseth wrote on the social media platform X that active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton were on high alert and would also be mobilized “if violence continues.”
Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs to control the crowd.
Some police patrolled the streets on horseback while others with riot gear lined up behind Guard troops deployed to protect federal facilities, including a detention center where some immigrants were taken in recent days. Police declared an unlawful assembly, and by early evening many people had left.
But protesters who remained grabbed chairs from a nearby public park to form a makeshift barrier, throwing objects at police on the other side. Others standing above the closed southbound 101 Freeway threw chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters, and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles that were parked on the highway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.
It was the third day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 federal troops spurred anger and fear among some residents. Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown.
Starting in the morning, National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Protesters shouted “shame” and “go home.” After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.
Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon, while southbound lanes remained shut down.
Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.
Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty.” He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials. It wasn’t clear if he’d spoken to Trump since Friday.
Their deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Mayor Karen Bass echoed Newsom’s comments.
“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” she said in an afternoon press conference. “This is about another agenda; this isn’t about public safety.”
Their admonishments did not deter the administration.
“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement in response.
Deployment follows days of protest
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot, and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
Demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles by hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives, and pepper balls.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
President Donald Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles, and they’re not gonna get away with it.”
Trump says there will be ‘very strong law and order’
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.
Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles, and they’re not gonna get away with it.”
Asked if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He didn’t elaborate.
About 500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Los Angeles, were in a “prepared to deploy status” Sunday afternoon, according to the U.S. Northern Command.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lives in Los Angeles, said the immigration arrests and Guard deployment were designed as part of a “cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”
She said she supports those “standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”
Former Vice President Kamala Harris declared on Sunday that she is supporting the anti-ICE protests in and around Los Angeles, claiming the demonstrations have been “overwhelmingly peaceful” despite violent clashes with federal authorities.
Harris, who has a home in Los Angeles and has been mulling a run for California governor, said in a statement that she is “appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city.” But instead of focusing on how troublemakers hurled rocks, concrete, and fireworks at federal officers and their vehicles, Harris took the opportunity to criticize her 2024 election opponent, President Donald Trump.
“Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division,” Harris said. “This Administration’s actions are not about public safety — they’re about stoking fear. Fear of a community demanding dignity and due process.”
Harris extolled protesting as “a powerful tool — essential in the fight for justice” without acknowledging the rioting that prompted Trump to deploy the National Guard.
“And as the LAPD, Mayor, and Governor have noted, demonstrations in defense of our immigrant neighbors have been overwhelmingly peaceful,” Harris said. “I continue to support the millions of Americans who are standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”
Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have vociferously opposed Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and touted peaceful demonstrations. These Democrats also faced blowback from Trump and others for failing to stop the unrest.
However, Newsom and Bass took time to relay messages discouraging acts of violence, destruction, and vandalism. Harris did no such thing and received criticism for it.
“No surprise that the most incompetent Vice President in history stands with the illegal alien rioters,” Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) quipped in a post on X.
“We all know you support lawless, violent, illegal alien rioters. That’s why you lost so badly in November. Back to irrelevancy you go!” said White House Deputy Press Secretary Abigail Jackson.
Fox News contributor Joe Concha observed, “This statement tells us 2024 Kamala wasn’t real and she was always 2019 Kamala all along on illegal immigration.”
Police have said several people have already been arrested in the protests that erupted as federal agents began to detain and deport a number of the dangerous criminal aliens who were the targets of raids throughout the Los Angeles area.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the arrest of a man accused of throwing rocks at law enforcement vehicles, injuring a federal officer, and damaging government vehicles.
“Hit a cop, you’re going to jail … doesn’t matter where you came from, how you got here, or what movement speaks to you. If the local police force won’t back our men and women on the thin blue line, we @FBI will,” said FBI Director Kash Patel.
The bedlam continued on Sunday as protesters swarmed a freeway in Los Angeles and set cars on fire in the downtown area.
Ernest Melendrez woke up early Sunday to shovel tear gas pellets and other charred and broken detritus from his neighborhood’s streets, the remnants of a battle between protesters demonstrating against immigration raids and federal and local authorities the night before.
Melendrez wore a mask covering his nose and mouth, but he coughed often – it wasn’t enough to protect him from the remaining tear gas still in the air.
Across the street, storefronts were covered in anti-U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement graffiti.
“I think people have the right idea, just the wrong approach,” Melendrez said as cars whisked by him, some honking in appreciation or stopping to ask questions about the night before. “Everybody has their own way of coping with stuff, and if nobody is there to help manage their feelings, this is what can tend to happen. You need some community support.”
Melendrez, his wife, and daughter cleaned the streets that were obscured just hours earlier by huge clouds of tear gas fired by federal authorities. The protests prompted President Donald Trump to order National Guard troops deployed to downtown Los Angeles over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The governor has called Trump’s order a “complete overreaction."
More protests erupted Sunday as troops dressed in tactical gear were seen stationed outside the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown, where hundreds of demonstrators clashed with federal authorities previously. Tear gas was fired when some demonstrators moved close to the Guard troops.
A Home Depot about a block away from where Melendrez was cleaning was the epicenter of the previous night’s struggle. On Sunday, it was empty and calm; a lone worker cleaned graffiti off the store’s sign as customers drove in.
As federal officers in tactical gear fired tear gas and other nonlethal weapons in Compton and Paramount on Saturday, some protesters started a series of small fires that left black char on the streets. Graffiti was scrawled on a doughnut shop, a taqueria, a gas station, and other locally owned businesses. On Sunday, the damage was still raw and uncleaned in Compton, save for Melendrez’s efforts, with spray-painted slogans such as “What is America without Immigrants” all around.
Launie Melendrez, who is married to Ernest, said she supported peaceful protest, and empathized with the families “being destroyed, that are getting wrangled up. It’s sad.”
She looked around at the local businesses that had been damaged and shook her head. “The destruction of people’s hard work. This is how these people, their families, take care of themselves. And the destruction of that is not going to help your case.”
Given the breadth of the damage, neighbors said they were angry they were being left to clean up the mess.
Melendrez’s daughter, Elaina Angel, grew up in Compton and said she wasn’t surprised. But it still left her feeling frustrated to see the Home Depot already reopened while her streets and local businesses were still marred by trash and graffiti.
“They don’t care about Compton,” she said through her mask, stopping to cough from the irritation. She meant political leaders, law enforcement authorities, and others who were nowhere to be seen Sunday morning. “But I don’t think they were counting on us to come out and clean it up.”