South Florida, home to large Venezuelan, Haitian and Cuban communities, will be hit hard by Trump’s travel ban
President Trump bans travel from several countries around the world
President Donald Trump signed a proclamation that bans travel from 12 countries and restricts seven others.
Reaction to President Donald Trump’s new travel bans was swift in South Florida, home to what are believed to be the largest Venezuelan, Haitian and Cuban communities in the United States.
“I am deeply concerned by this decision which further divides us as Americans and harms hardworking families contributing to the essential fabric of our community,” Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said in a June 5 social media post. “The work of our federal government should be to protect our borders and pass comprehensive immigration reform, not tear down our communities.”
Trump’s proclamation, signed on June 4, takes effect June 9. The administration cited security reasons for the bans on travelers from a dozen countries and restrictions on those from seven others. It prohibits entry into the U.S. of foreign nationals from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Travel restrictions, including suspensions, will be placed on those from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Of the nearly 1.7 million visas issued to people from those countries between 2014 and 2023, almost half were from Venezuela. They reunited with family, shopped and visited Disney World and other theme parks and attractions, according to recent media and social media accounts.
Venezuelans and Haitians speak out against the travel ban
The proclamation suspends entry into the United States for Venezuelan nationals with temporary work, study and tourist visas.
“Venezuela lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures,” the proclamation said. It also mentioned the overstay rate on visas from the country is nearly 10%.
A mother from Venezuela who moved to South Florida six years ago told CBS News she’s unsure whether her adult son, who remains in the South American country, will be allowed to visit her. The announcement also prompted concern among bloggers who write about Disney parks in California and Florida, who questioned the impact the restrictions could have on the thousands who visit the parks each year from Venezuela.
Members of South Florida’s Haitian community also spoke out about the ban. More than 230,000 native Haitians live in the metropolitan area, roughly 4% of the region’s population, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Marleine Bastien, who was born in Haiti and now serves on the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners, said she’s “deeply disheartened” by the ban. In a statement, she called it “cruel and xenophobic” and a “blatant attempt to scapegoat an already suffering people.”
“This unjust policy will sow chaos in our communities, separating families, and disrupting lives,” said Bastien, founder of Family Action Network Movement, a South Florida-based organization. The decision is a “betrayal of the values America claims to uphold – compassion, justice, and opportunity for all,” she said.
Haitians averaged 24,337 non-immigrant visas for the U.S. over a decade and Cubans averaged 12,464. Travel from the countries plunged during the pandemic but had begun to increase again by 2023. Haitians received 10,515 non-immigrant visas that year and Cubans received 6,146.
Trump’s proclamation stated he had directed the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, and others to identify countries where the vetting and screening information is “so deficient as to warrant a full or partial suspension” of nationals of those countries into the U.S. and the group had found a number of countries deficient.
Rubio, a South Florida native whose parents migrated from Cuba in 1956, shared on X a post from the White House, attributed to Trump: “We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen … That is why today I am signing a new executive order placing travel restrictions on countries including Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others.”
USA TODAY looked at how many visas were distributed to foreign nationals from the countries in question over the past decade. A nonimmigrant visa is a temporary document, issued for tourism, temporary work, medical care, study or business.
How many visitor’s visas were issued?
Combined, foreign nationals in the countries now facing travel bans accounted for fewer than 63,000 non-immigrant visas in 2023, the most recent year for which statistics are available. At least two dozen other countries not included in the ban each accounted for more visitor visas that year.
While Venezuela leads all the 19 recently restricted countries in visitors to the U.S., Iranians received 17,634 non-immigrant visas in 2023, more than any of the dozen countries facing total travel bans. Myanmar, which U.S. documents recognize as Burma, received the next-most with 13,284.
Here are the number of non-immigrant visas granted to nationalities of the other countries facing bans:
- Sudan, 4,506
- Yemen, 4,204
- Afghanistan, 2,665
- Libya, 2,259
- Congo Republic, 2,175
- Chad, 2,090
- Equatorial Guinea, 1,534
- Eritrea, 931
- Somalia, 463
Looking at the decade overall, Haitians topped the list, receiving the most non-immigrant visas among the banned countries at 243,369. Iran was second with 162,356 and Burma/Myanmar was third with 115,520.
Among the countries facing travel restrictions rather than bans, foreign nationals from five of those – Sierra Leone, Togo, Laos, Turkmenistan and Burundi – received fewer than 8,500 non immigrant visas combined in 2023.
Which country’s residents received the most non-immigrant visas?
Mexico led the world at 2.3 million non-immigrant visas in 2023. The figure also includes border crossing cards, laminated cards that allow Mexicans to cross the border between the nations for periods of less than 30 days.
More than 1.3 million people planning to visit the U.S. from India received non-immigrant visas in 2023 and 1.06 million from Brazil.
Other countries whose nationalities received the most visiting visas in 2023 include:
- Colombia, 476,293
- China, 417,008
- Argentina, 291,892
- Ecuador, 274,799
- Philippines, 285,860
- Israel, 190,415
- Vietnam, 133,781
- Dominican Republic, 130,360
- Turkey, 130,168
- Nigeria, 113,695
- Peru, 111,851
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about climate change, violent weather and other news. Reach her at [email protected] or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
