“Chad’s President Mahamat Idriss Deby on Thursday announced that his country will suspend the issuance of visas to U.S. citizens in response to the Trump administration’s decision to ban Chadians from visiting the U.S.,” reports the Associated Press:
President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term when he announced the visa ban on 12 countries including Chad, accusing them of having “deficient” screening and vetting, and historically refusing to take back their own citizens who overstay in the United States.
The new ban targets Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
There will also be heightened restrictions on visitors from seven others in the new travel policy which takes effect Monday at 12:01 a.m.
On Facebook, Chad’s president directed his government to suspend visas to U.S. citizens “in accordance with the principles of reciprocity.”
“Chad has no planes to offer, no billions of dollars to give but Chad has his dignity and pride,” Deby said, referring to the $400 million luxury plane offered to the White House by the oil-rich nation of Qatar.
It makes little sense for Chad to restrict travel by U.S. citizens, who typically only enter Chad to help operate Chad’s oil industry and leave as fast as possible after their work in Chad is done.
By contrast, CNN notes that the U.S. had reasons to be concerned about travelers from Chad, who often overstay their visas and remain in America illegally: “Chad had one of the highest rates of visa overstays of any country included in the ban; around half of the people admitted to the US from the central African nation overstayed their visa in the 2023 financial year, according to the DHS, though the numbers of Chadians granted such visas was relatively small. The White House said Wednesday that Chad’s overstay rate is ‘unacceptable and indicates a blatant disregard for U.S. immigration laws.'”
Chad is one of the world’s poorest and most unstable countries, and is known as the “dead heart of Africa” because much of it is desert and the inhabited parts are incredibly backward. Chad’s capital city, N’Djamena, is one of the hottest and dustiest cities on Earth. Chad is not a place Americans go for fun.
Chad is home to many terrorists, who have waged war against the government of Chad. Chad has been embroiled in civil wars for most of its existence.
Chad’s president, who is functionally a dictator, had one major opposition leader killed, and later had the main opposition leader arrested.
Under his rule, Chad — which has received lots of U.S. aid — seized the Chadian assets of the American oil company Exxon, whose production of oil was the main revenue source and source of export revenue for Chad, nationalizing billions of dollars in assets without compensation. Dictators who steal American assets and murder their political opponents should not get any U.S. aid.
Chad’s president Déby also helped tear apart neighboring Sudan, allowing the United Arab Emirates to set up a base in northern Chad to help the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF) take over the neighboring country of Sudan. The RSF have slaughtered members of Sudan’s Masalit ethnic group, looted much of the country, raped many women, enslaved many African men to serve as farm laborers or domestic servants, and enslaved many women to be sex slaves.
President Déby’s regime tortured many students who protested for democracy and killed some of them.
The U.S. travel ban on Chad does not apply to Green card holders from Chad; dual citizens; people who were granted asylum or admitted to the U.S. as refugees before the ban took effect; or people with U.S. family members who apply for visas in connection to their spouses, children or parents.
Chad is ranked as the fourth most backward nation on Earth, by the Human Development Index rankings.
