QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11)-- Hundreds of people living in New York neighborhoods are now trying to figure out how they will see their families again.
Starting June 9th, 2025, President Trump banned citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States, and there is restricted access for people from seven other countries. President Trump cited national security concerns.
The ban announced Wednesday applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The heightened restrictions also apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela who are outside the U.S. and don’t hold a valid visa.
Emmanuel Therassens, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2021 to attend college, told PIX11 News the travel ban means he won't be able to return to his native Haiti to visit his father and other family members.
Therassens currently has Temporary Protected Status and is working while living in Queens. His father, who still lives in Haiti, was trying to get a travel visa to visit him since the two have not seen each other in four years.
"When we hear this news, it really takes a big toll on us because there is nothing we can do about it, to change the situation," Therassens told PIX 11 News. "Everyone is being portrayed as those people with bad intentions. Most of the people who are eager to come to the United States these are hard working people who just want a better chance at life."
The New York Immigration Coalition and the Legal Aid Society are among the groups closely monitoring this latest presidential order.
Hasan Shafiqullah, an attorney with the Legal Aid Society, told PIX 11 News, "for them to say entire countries are categorically banned does not serve national security, this is purely, it is politics, this is keeping out people mostly of color, this is about xenophobia, it is about racism."
In 2017, President Trump's Muslim ban was met with legal challenges.
Murad Awadeh, the President and CEO of the New York Immigration Coalition, said this time, "It should not impact people who currently have status from those countries, but what we saw in 2017 was that regardless of that, people who were green card holders were put in detention at airports."
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