• Top US officials due to submitting travel ban reports.
• ‘Afghanistan, Pakistan marked for possible bans.’
• Tens of thousands of Afghans could be affected.

WASHINGTON: A new travel ban by President Donald Trump could prevent people from Pakistan and Afghanistan from entering the United States as soon as next week based on a government review of countries’ security and vetting risks, said three sources familiar with the case.

The well -informed sources requesting anonymity said that other countries could also be on the list, but did not know which ones.

The move returns to the Republican President’s first term ban on travelers from seven majority Muslim nations, a policy that underwent several iterations before being maintained by the Supreme Court in 2018.

Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, abolished the ban in 2021 and called it “a spot on our national conscience.”

The new ban could affect tens of thousands of Afghans who have been cleared for resettlement in the United States as refugees or on special immigrant visas because they are in danger of Taliban Renovation to work for the United States during a 20-year war in their homeland.

Trump issued an executive order on January 20, which required intensified security survey by any foreigners seeking admission to the United States to detect national security threats.

This order ordered several cabinet members to submit before 12 March a list of countries from which to travel partially or fully suspended because their “vetting and screening information are so deficient”.

Afghanistan will be included in the recommended list of countries for a complete travel ban, said the three sources and another who also asked not to be identified.

The three sources said Pakistan would also be recommended for admission.

Departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, whose leaders oversee the initiative, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

A source pointed out that Afghans cleared for resettlement in the United States as refugees or on special visas first undergoing intense screening, making them “more heavily monitored than any population” in the world.

The office of the state, which oversees their resettlement, is seeking an exemption from special immigrant visa holders from the travel ban, “but it is not believed that it will be awarded,” the source said.

This office, the coordinator of Afghan resaccation efforts, has been asked to develop a plan by April for its closure, Reuters reported last month.

The Taliban, who grabbed Kabul as the last US troops, withdrew in August 2021 after two decades of war, confronting a revolt of Daesh’s regional branch. Pakistan also struggles with violent militants.

Trump’s Directive is part of an immigration that he launched at the beginning of his second period.

He preview of his plan in a speech in October 2023 and promised to limit people from several countries in the Middle East and African and “Other places that threaten our security.”

Shawn Vandiver, the leader of #afghanevac, a coalition of groups coordinating evacuation and resettlement of Afghans with the US government, called on those who had valid US visas to travel as soon as possible if they can.

“Although no official announcement has been published, several sources in the US government suggest that a new travel restriction could be implemented within the next week,” he said in a statement.

This “can have a significant impact on Afghan visa holders who have been waiting for relocation” to the United States, he said.

There are about 200,000 Afghans approved for resettlement of us or have awaited us refugees and special immigrant visa applications.

They have been stranded in Afghanistan and almost 90 other country-inclusive approx. 20,000 in the Pakistan page on January 20, when Trump ordered a 90-day freezing of refugee recordings and foreign aid that finances their aircraft.