Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday that President Donald Trump’s administration is moving to expand the number of countries covered by its travel ban from the current 19 to “over 30.”
Noem made the comments in an interview on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” where she added that the president “is continuing to evaluate countries.”
The planned expansion follows an escalation earlier in the week in which the administration tightened entry screenings after an Afghan national accused of stabbing two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., was found to have entered the United States despite what officials described as “multiple indicators of elevated risk,” according to senior DHS officials speaking publicly on Tuesday.
Noem said the president ordered an immediate review of all existing travel-ban parameters after the attack, which authorities said occurred near a Metro station during a routine patrol.
One Guardsmen died. The other sustained critical injuries.
DHS officials said the incident accelerated pre-existing discussions about broadening the ban list, which had been under internal evaluation for several weeks.
Noem said Trump “wants every country that poses even a marginal security gap assessed for inclusion.”
She declined to name which additional nations are under consideration.
The move to expand the list from 19 to more than 30 would mark an increase of at least 11 countries.
Senior DHS aides said the revised list will incorporate new intelligence-sharing metrics adopted after the D.C. assault.
Those metrics include evaluating whether foreign governments promptly provide biometric data and criminal-history records when requested by U.S. authorities.
Officials said Afghanistan was already subject to heightened vetting but stopped short of indicating whether it would be newly added to the formal ban roster.
The White House said Thursday that Trump “is prepared to take any action necessary to prevent similar attacks,” according to spokesman Troy White.
Civil-liberties groups warned earlier this week that a broad expansion would “punish millions” without improving security, according to a statement from the ACLU.
Republican lawmakers largely backed Trump’s push, with Sen. Tom Cotton saying in a Thursday radio interview that the D.C. attack showed “the system is still too porous.”
Noem said DHS will release the updated list “when the president is ready.”
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.