Two African countries appear to have been singled out by the latest immigration policy of the Trump administration. Visitors to the United States from Malawi and Zambia will be required to pay $15,000 to enter the country. This new program is the latest in a series of harsh and selective immigration policies put in place since President Donald Trump’s return to office.
$15,000′ visa bond’ for visitors from Malawi and Zambia
The Department of State announced Tuesday, “Beginning Aug. 20, nationals of Malawi and Zambia applying for B1, B2, business and tourist visas will be required to post a bond of up to $15,000.” The move is being presented as part of a “visa bond pilot program” that will exist for 12 months and as a measure to deter visitors to the United States from overstaying their visas while in the country. According to the program’s rules, the bond will be returned to visitors upon their exit from the U.S.
An exclusionary policy and a ‘legalized shakedown’
The Trump administration will likely add other countries to the list of nations in the bond program. However, critics are questioning why the two small African nations have been singled out so far. Malawi and Zambia’s rates of visitors who overstay their visas in the U.S. are 14.3% and 11.1%, respectively, which are relatively high. However, the two countries combined send only a few thousand visitors to the United States each year, and the total number of visa overstays from the two countries in 2023 was only 625 people, according to immigration records. For example, over 20,000 people from Brazil and over 40,000 from Colombia overstayed their visas.
Critics also say the policy will restrict non-wealthy people from visiting the U.S. The Council on American-Islamic Relations called the new policy a “legalised shakedown,” adding the bond program is “about weaponising immigration policy to extort vulnerable visitors, punish disfavored countries, and turn America’s welcome mat into a paywall.”
Trump’s campaign against immigration
The bond visa program is part of the Trump administration’s larger policy of cracking down on both legal and unauthorized immigration. The announcements about the visa program reference Executive Order 14159, one of a slate of orders signed by Trump on Inauguration Day. The provocatively titled “Protecting The American People Against Invasion” order authorized Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies to crack down on unauthorized immigrants. The administration has additionally restricted legal immigration to the United States with the latest version of a Trump travel ban; the current policy blocks immigration to the U.S. from a dozen mostly Black and/or Muslim countries.
The Trump administration appears determined to enforce significant immigration restrictions in the U.S., targeting specific countries in the process. Now, the citizens of two small African countries are facing new restrictions, unless they can pay thousands of dollars before arriving in the country.
