For three years, Mouhameth Fall saved up for the trip of a lifetime. In 2026, he planned to visit the United States from Senegal.
A tech entrepreneur and sports fan, he wanted to see Stephen Curry play basketball, cheer on Senegal in the soccer World Cup and check out San Francisco. But then President Trump imposed harsh travel restrictions on Senegal, and Mr. Fall decided it would be pointless applying for a visa.
There are 36 countries on Mr. Trump’s travel ban or restrictions list. Twenty-nine of them are in Africa. The Department of Homeland Security said it was “slamming the door shut on the foreign invaders who have undermined our national security.”
Many Americans see illegal immigration as a major problem in the United States. But under the Trump administration’s policy, the people being shut out also include doctors, businesspeople, students, musicians and tourists seeking legal entry, like Mr. Fall, 34.
Homeland security officials could not be reached for comment on the restrictions.
Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations in January, and is a strong contender for the World Cup. But Mr. Fall has also been a fan of Mr. Curry’s for 23 years. While in boarding school in the Senegalese countryside, he would walk five miles to the nearest screen just to see him play. Now, he buys Golden State Warriors merchandise and league passes, and his wife teases him that he is really married to Mr. Curry.
Like many African professionals who visit the United States, Mr. Fall is financially stable, passionate about creating jobs in his home country, and travels internationally, in Europe and Asia. He sees the U.S. policy as unfair and racist.
“We don’t come to the United States because we’re running away, we come to watch the games,” he said. “We come because America sold us the American way of life, N.B.A. culture, basketball culture. These important things resonated with us and made us want to come — and then go home. Not stay in the United States and wander the streets in the cold.”
Not all are coming for tourism. Some of those who had planned trips were coming to work.
The rock band Etran de l’Aïr, from Agadez, a city on the edge of the Sahara in Niger, was set to do its fourth tour of the United States this summer, with 55 shows. After Niger was placed on the banned list, they had to cancel.
“It’s a big disappointment,” said Abdoulaye Ibrahim, the bassist, who said the band members had lost 80 percent of their income this year. “We’re praying that it changes.”
Many come to further their educations, like Stanford Nyatsanza, a public policy researcher at the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute. He said he had hoped to do his Ph.D. in the United States, and had recently been searching for scholarships there. “These latest developments have derailed my dream,” he said.
People on the restricted list, such as those in Zimbabwe and Senegal, can still apply for visas, but are facing an increase in rejections, observers say, and in some cases are required to post bonds of up to $15,000. People from nations on the banned list, such as Niger, can’t come at all.
In January, the Trump administration announced it would also suspend the approval of immigrant visas for people from 75 countries. Nearly 90 percent of African immigrant visa applicants are now banned, according to the Cato Institute, a think tank. The policies have been challenged in a flurry of ongoing lawsuits.
The Trump administration has argued its immigration policies are necessary because it cannot sufficiently vet would-be travelers. It has also asserted that residents of certain affected countries have high overstay rates — though there are countries outside Africa with even higher overstay rates that have not been restricted.
“It appears to us that Africa is targeted,” Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa’s president, said in a recent interview, adding that in his opinion, a “racist demeanor” underlay the policy. “We want to be treated with respect.”
Africans account for a small fraction of the immigrants in the United States, but they are much more likely than both U.S.-born and other foreign-born groups to be in the labor force, and more likely than other foreign-born people to have college educations, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Dozens of young Nigerian doctors come to the United States to do their residencies.
“We’re sending highly trained, highly specialized people, and they’re not just coming to leech off the American government or American society,” said Dr. Susan Edionwe, president of the Nigerian Physicians Advocacy Group in the United States. “They’re offering care. They’re taking care of communities.”
Lately, though, Dr. Edionwe’s organization has been telling young Nigerian doctors that it’s probably “not the time” to try to go to the United States.
“Nigeria could help Americans meet a need,” she said. “These are very, very knowledgeable people who can be used to improve health outcomes in some of our toughest communities.”
Nigeria is the country most affected by the restrictions, according to the American Immigration Council. By far Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria’s relations with the United States have recently been strained by Washington’s false claims of a “Christian genocide.”
The restrictions are a “major concern” for Nigeria’s government, said Sunday Dare, a senior adviser to Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu — and also for the thousands of Nigerians who regularly travel to the United States, including professionals and close relatives of American citizens.
In recent years, around 128,000 immigrant and nonimmigrant visas were issued to Nigerians annually. “Painting everybody with one brush creates a lot of problems,” Mr. Dare said.
Joy Eneche, the owner of an Abuja-based travel agency, said the only Nigerians booking tickets to the United States now were diplomats, officials, and their children.
She used to charge around $150 to help her clients apply for U.S. visas. But since the restrictions were announced, she has stopped offering that service, as the requirements are too onerous, she said. Instead, she said, she now focuses on Europe, Asia and other parts of Africa.
This year, Ms. Eneche had planned a trip to the United States herself, to visit a friend and find out more about the tours she sells to her clients. “I’ve never been to the U.S., but I’ve sold a lot of U.S. tickets,” she said in a phone interview. But seeing all the visa denials, she has now decided to go to Britain instead.
Not everyone sees the exclusion of the United States as a travel destination as a huge loss. Rev. Joseph John Hayab, the chairman of Northern Christian Association of Nigeria, emphasized that not all Nigerians were “desperate visa seekers to America,” and that many were focused on staying and building their own country.
“If you travel outside, it’s as if you’ve gone to heaven,” he said. “Traveling to America is not going to heaven.”
For Mr. Fall, the Senegalese tech entrepreneur, canceling his travel plans marks the end of a long-held dream. He thinks that Mr. Curry may be approaching retirement, he said, so this was probably his last chance to watch him live.
And he is very worried about how Senegal’s soccer team will perform in the World Cup, with almost nobody there to support them.
Reporting was contributed by Ricci Shryock, Dickson Adama, Matthew Mpoke Bigg, John Eligon, Jeffrey Moyo and Golden Matonga.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
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