WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions.

The ban takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m., a cushion that may avoid the chaos that unfolded at airports nationwide when a similar measure took effect with virtually no notice in 2017. Trump, who signaled plans for a new ban upon taking office in January, appears to be on firmer ground this time after the Supreme Court sided with him.

Some, but not all, 12 countries also appeared on the list of banned countries in Trump’s first term. The new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

There will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

In a video released on social media, Trump tied the new ban to Sunday’s terror attack in Boulder, Colorado, saying it underscored the dangers posed by some visitors who overstay visas. The suspect in the attack is from Egypt, a country that is not on Trump’s restricted list. The Department of Homeland Security says he overstayed a tourist visa.

Trump said some countries had “deficient” screening and vetting or have historically refused to take back their own citizens. His findings rely extensively on an annual Homeland Security report of visa overstays of tourists, business visitors and students who arrive by air and sea, singling out countries with high percentages of remaining after their visas expired.

“We don’t want them,” Trump said.

The inclusion of Afghanistan angered some supporters who have worked to resettle its people. The ban makes exceptions for Afghans on Special Immigrant Visas, generally people who worked most closely with the U.S. government during the two-decade-long war there.

Afghanistan was also one of the largest sources of resettled refugees, with about 14,000 arrivals in a 12-month period through September 2024. Trump suspended refugee resettlement his first day in office.

“To include Afghanistan — a nation whose people stood alongside American service members for 20 years — is a moral disgrace. It spits in the face of our allies, our veterans, and every value we claim to uphold,” said Shawn VanDiver, president and board chairman of #AfghanEvac.

Trump wrote that Afghanistan “lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures.” He also cited its visa overstay rates.

Haiti, which avoided the travel ban during Trump’s first term, was also included for high overstay rates and large numbers who came to the U.S. illegally. Haitians continue to flee poverty, hunger and political instability deepens while police and a U.N.-backed mission fight a surge in gang violence, with armed men controlling at least 85% of its capital, Port-au-Prince.

“Haiti lacks a central authority with sufficient availability and dissemination of law enforcement information necessary to ensure its nationals do not undermine the national security of the United States,” Trump wrote.

The Iranian government government offered no immediate reaction to being included. The Trump administration called it a “state sponsor of terrorism,” barring visitors except for those already holding visas or coming into the U.S. on special visas America issues for minorities facing persecution.

Other Mideast nations on the list — Libya, Sudan and Yemen — all face ongoing civil strife and territory overseen by opposing factions. Sudan has an active war, while Yemen’s war is largely stalemated and Libyan forces remain armed.

International aid groups and refugee resettlement organizations roundly condemned the new ban. “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.

The travel ban results from a Jan. 20 executive order Trump issued requiring the departments of State and Homeland Security and the Director of National Intelligence to compile a report on “hostile attitudes” toward the U.S. and whether entry from certain countries represented a national security risk.

During his first term, Trump issued an executive order in January 2017 banning travel to the U.S. by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries — Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen.

It was one of the most chaotic and confusing moments of his young presidency. Travelers from those nations were either barred from getting on their flights to the U.S. or detained at U.S. airports after they landed. They included students and faculty as well as businesspeople, tourists and people visiting friends and family.

The order, often referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban,” was retooled amid legal challenges, until a version was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018.

The ban affected various categories of travelers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria and Libya, plus North Koreans and some Venezuelan government officials and their families.

Trump and others have defended the initial ban on national security grounds, arguing it was aimed at protecting the country and not founded on anti-Muslim bias. However, the president had called for an explicit ban on Muslims during his first campaign for the White House.

Reporting by Chris Megerian and Farnoush Amiri, Associated Press. AP writers Rebecca Santana, Jon Gambrell, Ellen Knickmeyer and Danica Coto contributed.

A group of Democratic state lawmakers is calling for an expansion of Michigan’s civil rights law to specifically include protections against antisemitism.

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This is following recent acts of alleged antisemitic violence in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C.

The legislation would add the word “ethnicity” to the Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act’s wide range of protected characteristics that already include “religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, height, weight, familial status, marital status, or source of income.”

Supporters say they view recent incidents of violence against Jewish people — some of which have been labeled by police and the alleged perpetrators as alleged antisemitic violence in Colorado, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. to protests of Israel’s actions in Gaza — as evidence that antisemitism deserves to be specifically included in the civil rights law.

An annual survey by the America Jewish Committee found roughly a third of Jews in the U.S. say they have been target of antisemitism, and an Anti-Defamation League report found antisemitic incidents reached a record high last year.

“There is a tremendous conflict going on that has evoked a lot of emotions, but when Jews here are subject to harassment, intimidation and incitement of violence, that is antisemitic,” Sen. Jeremy Moss (D-Southfield) told Michigan Public Radio. “Jews should be able to be safe in this country where they stand.”

State Rep. Noah Arbit (D-West Bloomfield) is a lead sponsor of the bill. He said the concept of “collective guilt” is an antisemitic trope that has been resuscitated.

“The idea of collective responsibility, collective punishment, used to be thought of as racist,” he said. “Now, suddenly, all American Jews — and frequently not just American Jews, but Jews in France, Jews in the U.K., Canada, are being held collectively responsible for the actions — right or wrong, agree or disagree — of the government of the state of Israel.”

A United Nations special committee investigating Israel’s warfare in Gaza found last year that it was “consistent with the characteristics of genocide, with mass civilian casualties and life-threatening conditions intentionally imposed on Palestinians there.”

The Jewish population of the U.S. has been split in its attitude toward Israel and its war on Gaza after a Hamas-led attack killed more than 1,100 Israelis.

Arbit said politicians on the right and the left have failed to stand up against antisemitism. He said an expansion of the civil rights law would show elected officials are taking the new rise of antisemitism seriously.

Other headlines for Wednesday, June 4, 2025:

• Last week, the Trump administration paused funding for all Job Corps centers — a decades old residential career training program. A group of Michigan Democrats sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Labor urging them to reverse the order, stating the move has left staff and students scrambling. 
• Former University of Michigan president Santa Ono left Ann Arbor expecting to become the president of the University of Florida. However, that’s not going to happen, as the board that oversees the sunshine state’s public universities rejected Ono’s appointment, overruling the school’s own board of trustees, which approved his appointment in May.
• The Department of Natural Resources is inviting Michiganders to take advantage of free fishing, ORVing and state park entry during “Three Free” weekend June 7-8. 
• The city of Detroit’s Retirees Task Force is hosting a hybrid meeting from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. this Friday, June 6, at the Coleman Young Municipal Center.

Do you have a community story we should tell? Let us know in an email at detroiteveningreport@wdet.org.