As his 2016-2020 presidency demonstrated, Donald Trump‘s sometimes controversial legislation had ramifications beyond US borders.
Throughout his victorious 2024 presidential campaign, Trump has insisted he would reinstate and expand on the immigration policies of his first presidential term, including using executive orders and authority to build a wall between the US border with Mexico, and carrying out the largest domestic deportation operation in US history.
During his first term, he also changed the ways in which foreign nationals could enter the US, banning people from so-called “shit hole countries” from entering.
Here’s what we can expect from Trump’s second term after he returns to the White House in January – and what it will mean for travel to the United States.
The controversial ‘travel ban’ and hostile immigration practices
Speaking at an event aimed at combating antisemitism in Washington DC in September, Trump vowed to “bring back the travel ban”.
As well as refusing to accept refugees from “infested countries”, he wants to restore the ban put in place during his first term as president. That included banning visitors from countries such as Haiti and some African nations.
“We will bring back the travel ban – you remember the famous travel ban,” he said at the event, “We didn’t take people from certain areas of the world because I didn’t want to have people ripping down and burning our shopping centres and killing people.”
His initial ban, issued in January 2017, restricted entry into the US for some foreign nationals, reducing the number of refugees permitted to enter the country and revoking some visas. His executive actions initially affected nationals from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya – predominantly Muslim – and was revised several times. Iraq and and Sudan were subsequently removed from the list. Outgoing president Joe Biden revoked the ban as one of his first actions as leader in 2021.
Trump has made it clear he intends to reinstate the order, expanding it to include refugees from Gaza. Speaking at the Washington DC event in September, he described some of the countries included in the previous bans as “very vicious, violent parts of the world.” He has also vowed to “deport the foreign Jihad sympathisers and Hamas supporters from our midst”.
In addition to these executive orders, Trump influenced the US Department of State to designate Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” (SST) – a country suspected of having terrorist links – just before the end of his first presidential term. There are currently four nations deemed SSTs by the US: Cuba, Iran, Syria and North Korea. The Biden administration did not remove Cuba from the list.
Any person who has travelled to Cuba, or other such countries, since they were designated “SSTs” are not permitted to apply for an Esta visa waiver for entry to the US. It is possible that the list of SSTs could be expanded again under a Trump presidency.
The US under Trump, though, might make it easier for Russian passport-holders to visit. Currently, they’re not able to apply for an Esta and must apply for a visa.
“I don’t think we’ll see any kind of immediate shutting of the border to business travellers or holidaymakers,” Christi Hufford Jackson, Partner and Head of the US Practice at the Laura Devine Immigration law firm in London, tells i. “But it wouldn’t surprise me if we soon start seeing more scrutiny at the border, especially for minorities.”
Jackson is also concerned about how people with dual citizenship might be treated during the visa application process and at the borders, especially those with heritage from countries Trump deems undesirable.
“If you are a dual citizen of places like Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Sudan, Yemen and Cuba, or you’d visited those countries, you would likely not be eligible for the Esta Visa Waiver Program and may be denied a visa to visit the US,” she said. “What is more complicated is someone who happens to be, for example, Mexican and British. I do think that’s going to be a trickle down system and we would eventually see problems.”
Visa delays could return
A large focus of Trump’s campaign has been on his “America first” policy, which could imply a tourist board funding freeze and a turn towards domestic rather than inbound travel.
Another effect could be that it might take visitors not eligible to apply for an Esta longer to obtain a visa.
During his first administration, Trump put in place a hiring freeze of visa processing staff at the State Department, which saw significant delays and denials in visa issuance for many applicants, especially those from countries flagged for higher security concerns. He also closed down many US Citizenship and Immigration Services offices around the world.
Visa disruption could affect people intending to spend longer in the US, Jackson says. “We’ve already had plenty of queries [the day of the election result]. People will always want to go to the US – whoever the president is – for reasons like business or family needs. It’s just going to be a hell of a lot harder under Trump. It will make our lives as immigration lawyers harder. We’ve all been dreading this moment.
“The whole process of a US citizen sponsoring an immediate relative from the UK, from start to finish, took about four months,” she explains, adding that President Biden didn’t reopen immigration offices during his tenure. “Now, say, if an American wants to take their spouse to America, they’ll typically have to wait between one and a half to two years to get that visa. It’s a real shame.”
Environmental laws will likely be relaxed – here’s why
During Trump’s first administration, climate rules were relaxed, including weakening standards on air and water quality. Trump also reduced restrictions on fossil-fuel production, and changed rules that had been designed to limit pollution from power plants and vehicles.
In 2017, he also withdrew the US from the Paris Climate Accord, claiming that the agreement was unfair to his country and would undermine its economy. In 2021, Biden re-entered the Accord, recommitting the US to reducing greenhouse gas emissions as well as working closely with other nations to combat global warming.
By contrast, Trump frequently dismisses the threat of global warming, repeatedly calling it “one of the great scams of all time.” He has also falsely claimed the planet is actually cooling down, that rising sea levels would be beneficial and create “more oceanfront property”.
In 2019, he cancelled nearly $1bn (£769bn) of funding for California’s high-speed rail project, which was partially restored by President Biden in 2021, alongside an $8.2bn (£6.3bn) commitment to funding for the nation’s Amtrak railroad network. Ray LaHood, who served as Transportation Secretary under the Obama administration, has previously said a Trump victory could jeopardise progress made on high-speed rail under Biden.
Airports might improve
At the end of October, the Biden administration committed $970m (£747m) to improving 125 US airports in 46 states as part of an effort to modernise crumbling hubs, focused on “making the passenger experience better” and “improving accessibility for passengers.”
Some of the biggest grants have been awarded to Tampa airport in Florida, Denver in Colorado, Austin in Texas, Salt Lake City in Utah and Logan International in Boston.
Improving infrastructure is one thing Biden and Trump do agree on. Trump has previously described US airports as “third world” and proposed an ultimately unsuccessful $1.5trn (£1.2trn) infrastructure plan aimed at improving this. It is likely that he will try to get a similar bill passed under his second presidency.
A further price surge
Following Trump’s re-election, the dollar surged in its biggest one-day gain against currencies including the euro, yen and sterling in two years.
The recent strength of the dollar, coupled with inflation, has made the US a noticeably expensive destinations for visitors – especially for those visiting New York City and Los Angeles, where a Starbucks latte can typically cost the equivalent of £6 before tips – but this could be an early indication of further price rises for tourists.
The country is also infamous for its tipping culture, something that has been key to Trump’s reelection campaign. He has said he will seek legislation to end the taxation of tips and overtime wages to aid waiters and other service workers.
While it’s not clear what effect this change would have on patrons in restaurants and bars, there are concerns that menu prices could be inflated to mitigate the measure, while customers reduce their tips. Meanwhile, many low-wage workers would not stand to benefit, if their salary is untaxed.
Anti-Trump sentiment
New research has revealed that some UK holidaymakers are already reconsidering their travel plans to the United States.
Travel company Holiday Extras took a poll on the day the result was declared, and discovered 17 per cent of Brits would not travel to the US next year, as a result of Trump’s victory.
“Since 2023 the biggest issues have been extreme climate events and global conflicts, with anti-tourist protests appearing as a major issue earlier this year,” Seamus McCauley, head of public affairs at Holiday Extras said, “But this is the first time we’ve seen 20 per of holidaymakers think about changing their plans in response to an election overseas – that’s almost the same as the 22 per cent who say their plans might be disrupted by conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.”
What will the US look like when Trump is inaugurated in January?
In his manifesto, Trump wrote: “Republicans will restore every Border Policy of the Trump administration” – and it’s likely he’ll add even more strings to that particular bow.
“We’re going to be back to the same four years of what we had before, but maybe it might even be worse,” Jackson explains – although she is hopeful there may not be too many restrictions on tourists, immediately at least.
“There was some higher level of scrutiny based on race, religion, dual nationalities and things like that, but we didn’t see massive impacts to just general business travel to the US during the first administration – and I hope that will be similar this time around.”
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