On Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced travel bans for a dozen countries and restrictions for seven more.
The move will prevent citizens from certain countries from visiting the U.S.
The countries facing bans effective at 12:01 a.m. on June 9 are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Visitors coming from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela will face increased restrictions.
"I think the government's efforts to restrict people based on nationality is really anti-American," said Angie Plummer, executive director of Columbus-based Community Refugee and Immigration Services (CRIS).
Plummer said Trump's proclamation was "really confusing" and it was unclear if the bans would apply to refugees. She said the document also incorrectly said that thousands of Haitians came to the country illegally, when they actually came legally under protected status, before Trump revoked that designation.
'We're trying to really wrap our heads around who it applies to and who it doesn't," Plummer said.
She said the proclamation lists some exceptions for immediate relatives of U.S. citizens.
"But that leaves out whole swaths of people who might be coming to join family members of different categories," Plummer said.
While banning travel from Afghanistan, the proclamation lists an exception for Afghans who have special immigrant visas, typically given to those who worked closely with the U.S. during the war there.
But Sarfaraz Mukhlis with Columbus-based Afghan Community of Ohio said he's still concerned about those people, as many who have approval are still stranded in Afghanistan or other countries.
"They are just waiting to get them, so they will pick up from Afghanistan or from (another) country," Mukhlis said. "Some of them, they already sold their property, their house, their car, their everything."
Mukhlis added that he understands restricting some people from entering the U.S., but that he thinks banning essentially all Afghans from visiting or moving to the U.S. is "unfair."
He said central Ohio's current Afghan community is full of hardworking, independent people.
"They have a job, their children go to school or they support the community. They're peaceful people," Mukhlis said.
Mukhlis said he thinks the travel ban for Afghans is a "bad idea" and added that the U.S. should bring Afghans who helped with the war to the country as soon as possible. He said if those people aren't allowed into the country, that would discourage people from helping the U.S. in future wars.
