New U.S. Travel Ban Shuts Door on Africa’s Biggest Economy, Nigeria

New York Times logoThe visa rules will affect nearly a quarter of the people on the African continent, including many hoping to join loved ones already in the U.S.

The newlyweds had already been apart for half their yearlong marriage. Miriam Nwegbe was in Nigeria. Her husband was in Baltimore, and until she could join him, everything was on hold: finding a home together, trying for their first baby, becoming an American family.

Then, on Friday, their lives were thrown into disarray by the expansion of President Trump’s ban on immigration to include six new countries, including four in Africa. Nigeria, the continent’s most populous nation, was one of them.

“America has killed me,” Ms. Nwegbe’s husband, Ikenna, an optometrist, texted her when he heard. “We are finished.” Continue reading.