Trump expands US travel ban to include Palestine and Syria

Donald Trump has expanded the United States’ travel ban to cover citizens from six additional places, including Palestine and Syria, as his administration deepens its hardline immigration crackdown.

The White House announced the move on Tuesday, adding Palestine, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria to a list that already included 12 countries named in June. The decision follows Trump’s declaration weeks earlier of a “permanent pause” on migration from what he called “all Third World Countries”.

While Palestine was newly included, the order conspicuously avoided naming it as such. Instead, it refers to “Palestinian Authority Documents” and describes Palestinians as “individuals attempting to travel on PA-issued or endorsed travel documents”, reflecting Washington’s continued refusal to recognise Palestine as a state.

The administration justified the move on security grounds.

“Several US-designated terrorist groups operate actively in the West Bank or Gaza Strip and have murdered American citizens,” the White House said. “Also, the recent war in these areas likely resulted in compromised vetting and screening abilities.”

“In light of these factors, and considering the weak or nonexistent control exercised over these areas by the PA, individuals attempting to travel on PA-issued or endorsed travel documents cannot currently be properly vetted and approved for entry into the United States.”

The ban on Palestinians comes as Israel continues daily military operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers have killed at least two US citizens in the occupied territories this year, according to rights groups.

The decision has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, the only Palestinian American in Congress, accused Trump and his senior adviser Stephen Miller of using immigration policy to reshape the country’s demographics.

“This administration’s racist cruelty knows no limits, expanding their travel ban to include even more African and Muslim-majority countries, even Palestinians fleeing a genocide,” Tlaib wrote on social media.

The inclusion of Syria has also raised eyebrows. It comes despite signs of renewed engagement between Washington and Damascus, including Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s visit to the White House in November.

Still, the administration said Syria remains institutionally unfit.

“While the country is working to address its security challenges in close coordination with the United States, Syria still lacks an adequate central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures,” the White House said.

Senior US officials have doubled down on the ideological framing of the ban. On Thursday, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard cited a mass shooting at a Jewish festival in Australia to praise Trump’s immigration policies.

“Islamists and Islamism is the greatest threat to the freedom, security, and prosperity of the United States and the entire world,” she wrote on X. “It is probably too late for Europe – and maybe Australia. It is not too late for the United States of America. But it soon will be. Thankfully, President Trump has prioritized securing our borders and deporting known and suspected terrorists, and stopping mass, unvetted migration that puts Americans at risk.”