President Trump's new ban on travel to the U.S. by citizens from 12 mainly African and Middle Eastern countries has taken effect amid rising tension over the president's escalating campaign of immigration enforcement.

Even before President Donald Trump told Haitians this week they will no longer be welcome in the United States, travel from the crisis-wracked Caribbean nation was already difficult. It's been restricted by deadly gang violence,

U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler, a fellow Republican, urged the Trump administration to reverse its decision. Lawler's 17th District includes Spring Valley, home to the second-largest Haitian diaspora, per capita, in the U.S.