Gambiaj.com – (WASHINGTON, D.C) – Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina has introduced legislation that would permanently bar nationals of The Gambia and 39 other countries from entering the United States.
The proposed legislation, titled the Third World Immigration Moratorium Act, was introduced in the US House of Representatives on July 15, 2026. It targets countries across Africa, the Caribbean, and the Middle East.
Mace said the bill is intended to strengthen US national security, arguing that immigrants from the affected countries have, in her view, largely failed to integrate into American society.
According to Fox News, the countries listed in the bill are The Gambia, Afghanistan, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burma (Myanmar), Burundi, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Gabon, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, Yemen, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The legislation would also prohibit entry to individuals traveling on Palestinian Authority-issued travel documents.
Security justification
In a statement obtained by Fox News Digital, Mace defended the proposal, saying the United States should adopt a tougher approach to immigration.
“For too long, Washington has looked the other way while bad actors exploited every gap in our system and American families paid the price. Those days are over,” she said.
She added, “If you import the third world, you will become the third world. This bill makes crystal clear: entry into the United States is a privilege, not a right. We make absolutely no apologies for defending it.”
Under the proposed legislation, however, the US Secretary of Homeland Security would retain the authority to grant individual waivers if admitting a specific person is deemed to be in the country’s “critical interest.”
Uncertain prospects
The bill follows the Trump administration’s decision in June 2025 to reinstate travel restrictions on a number of countries. That move came after the arrest of an Egyptian national charged in connection with a deadly firebombing attack in Boulder, Colorado, targeting demonstrators calling for the release of hostages in Gaza.
Mace’s proposal would effectively make those travel restrictions permanent by enshrining them in federal law rather than leaving them subject to presidential executive orders.
However, the legislation faces significant hurdles in Congress. It is expected to encounter opposition from Democrats as well as some Republicans who support legal immigration pathways for nationals from several of the countries on the list, making its chances of passing the House of Representatives uncertain.
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