The United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order banning people from 12 countries and restricting the travel of citizens from seven others. People from Sierra Leone, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will face heightened restrictions to enter the United States of America.
Among the countries with bans are Afghanistan, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Trump said in a video released by the White House on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, that, ‘I must act to protect the national security and national interest of the United States and its people.’
Trump said the recent attack on a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado, had ‘underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted’.
President Trump claimed there were ‘millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country’.
‘We will not let what happened in Europe happen to America,’ he said, adding, ‘very simply, we cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States’.
‘We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm.’
There is no announcement of the new restriction on Sierra Leone on the United States Embassy website in Sierra Leone as of Thursday, June 5. However, the United States Ambassador to Sierra Leone, Bryant D Hunt, had earlier said in a local media interview that the United States has concerns about Sierra Leoneans misusing their visas when they travel to the United States. Ambassador Hunt said, ‘15% of Sierra Leoneans who travel on tourist and business visas overstay. 35% of those who travel on student visas remain in the United States illegally. This cannot continue; we need to see Sierra Leoneans using their visas in accordance with US law, which means no overstaying, no working on a tourist visa. This is a top priority for the current US administration,’ Ambassador Hunt said.
Ambassador Hunt warned, “If visa compliance does not improve, we will explore a full range of options to secure the visa process. We cannot tolerate the high visa overstay rate. Therefore, there will continue to be a high visa refusal rate for Sierra Leoneans applying for visas to the United States until the overstay rates decrease.”
The new rules are likely to create confusion. It is not clear whether, according to this new visa restriction,new visas will still be issued. EyeWitnessNews has contacted the U.S. Embassy in Freetown’s Public Affairs department for clarification.”
