TORONTO — Hla Wynn was looking forward to his annual trip to New York this summer, eager to spend time with family and help his brother recover from surgery. But the retired college professor said his long-standing plans are on hold until further notice now that U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a travel ban on residents of more than a dozen countries, including his birthplace of Myanmar.
"We've been going back and forth, some years they come and visit us, sometimes we go and visit them, to go for a trip during the summertime, spend about a week or two with them," the 73-year-old said of his summer travels. "... but because of this new development, I'm not comfortable visiting them."
Trump announced Wednesday that citizens of 12 countries — Myanmar, Afghanistan, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — would be banned from visiting the United States.
Seven more countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — face heightened travel restrictions.
Some of the 12 countries on the banned list were targeted by a similar measure Trump enacted in his first term.
Wynn, who now lives in Toronto, has maintained close ties in his home country and worries about the broader impact of Trump's ban, which is set to take effect on Monday.
He said he has been helping university students in Myanmar online after they lost access to education following a military coup in 2021, and he now fears the ban will make it difficult for those wanting to continue their studies.
"Everything was closed down or even if they are open, they are under military government, which is a very poor education system," he said.
"I was so sad for these people because lots of people are trying to get into (the) U.S. and Canada ... and now there are lots of students stuck to get a visa."
The head of an association representing the Myanmar community in Ontario said the new travel ban is "cruel" to the people of his country.
Napas Thein, president of the Burma Canadian Association of Ontario, said the people of Myanmar are already facing difficulties in their own country thanks to the coup and a new law mandating military service, and the ban will make it harder to move to a safer place.
"This has really put a strain on people that I know in Canada," he said.
"I know a student, supposed to be incoming PhD student, who is supposed to go to a university in the United States, whose trajectory there may be completely halted because he's a Myanmar national."
Thein said he and fellow Canadian citizens from the Myanmar diaspora feel uneasy about crossing the Canada-U.S. border, and some have already started cancelling plans to attend conferences or visit their families.
"We really don't know, and even though, technically, people who are born (in Myanmar) but are Canadian citizens should be able to go, we're really not sure," he said.
Thein noted the new U.S. travel ban landed days after Canada introduced new border security measures that would, if passed, limit people's ability to claim asylum in Canada.
Critics and advocacy groups are calling the wide-ranging border security legislation a threat to civil liberties in the immigration and asylum system.
The government says the 127-page bill introduced on Monday aims to keep borders secure, combat transnational organized crime, stop the flow of deadly fentanyl and crack down on money laundering.
One proposed change in the Liberal legislation would prevent people from making asylum claims if they've been in Canada for more than a year. That change would not affect applications that have been submitted already but would be retroactive to June 3, assuming the bill becomes law.
"It just felt like kind of a double whammy for my friends who are in Canada, who aren't Canadian citizens but are from Myanmar, because they've already been through over four years of personal struggle," he said.
"Restricting the people who have studied here already from accessing the (Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada) or asylum, it could be really drastic for these people."
Dawit Demoz, vice-president of the Eritrean Canadian Community Centre in Toronto, said his organization is "deeply concerned" about the implications of the new travel ban in the U.S. for the Eritrean diaspora.
He said many families in the Eritrean community south of the border remain separated due to the ongoing political and humanitarian crisis in their home country, and the new ban further complicates their efforts to reunite.
"(The ban) creates additional fear and uncertainty for those seeking safety and connection across borders," he said.
"For our community, policies like this do not just impact travel but they deepen isolation, delay reunification and compound the emotional toll experienced by displaced individuals."
--- With files from The Associated Press.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 6, 2025.
Maan Alhmidi, The Canadian Press
