WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has set a Wednesday deadline for 36 countries, primarily in Africa, to agree to enhance their vetting procedures or risk being barred from sending their citizens to the United States.
A diplomatic cable dispatched over the weekend by the State Department directs embassies and consulates in these 36 countries to assess their host nations’ willingness to upgrade travel documentation and resolve the status of their nationals illegally residing in the United States by Wednesday.
The cable, which was described to The Associated Press, advises these countries to address U.S. concerns within 60 days or face inclusion in the travel ban list, which currently comprises 12 nations. Out of the 36 countries newly targeted, 25 are located in Africa.
State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce declined to comment on the specifics in the cable. She confirmed that the administration wanted nations to improve their own vetting processes for passport holders, accept their nationals deported from the U.S. and take other steps to ensure their citizens are not a threat to the U.S.
“We’re looking at providing a period of time, (where if countries) don’t get to that point where we can trust them and they’ve got to change the system, update it, do whatever they need to do to convince us that we can trust the process and the information they have,” she said.
The 36 countries identified in the cable are: Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Dominica, Ethiopia, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Malawi, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, South Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The Washington Post first reported on the cable.
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