The State Department could ban entry to those who fail to enforce immigration laws or establish policies and practices “that knowingly facilitate the transit of aliens intending to illegally immigrate into the United States via the U.S. southwest border.”

“These measures will continue until those officials take responsibility for ensuring there are policies in place and existing laws are enforced to prevent the transit of such individuals,” Rubio said.

“America will not back down when it comes to defending our national security interests.”

The State Department said the new policy will “complement” the Biden administration’s policy targeting the private sector involved in irregular migration from Central and South America.

In November 2023, the Biden administration announced a new policy specifically against executives running charter flights into Nicaragua with the specific purpose profit from placing migrants on the migration path toward the United States.

Since then, the previous administration expanded the policy several times to include executives of travel agencies and tour operators as well as transportation operators, including ground and maritime firms.

The move comes as President Donald Trump — who heavily campaigned on the issue of the southern border, often using misinformation and violent and derogatory rhetoric in the process — has sought to crack down on both legal and illegal immigration.

During his first six weeks in office, Trump declared an emergency at the southern border, launched a law enforcement effort to arrest undocumented immigrants and attempted to end birthright citizenship.