What’s unfolding across parts of West Africa is less about paperwork and more about dignity. By tightening or suspending access for U.S. passport holders, governments like Niger are answering a long-standing imbalance: if American policies can shut doors on their officials and citizens, they can answer in kind. The visa window becomes a mirror, reflecting years of one-sided rules back at Washington.

For Americans who once assumed near-automatic welcome, the new reality is jarring. Students, aid workers, and families now face itineraries that can collapse with a single policy shift. Yet inside this discomfort lies a reckoning the U.S. rarely confronts: the privilege of movement is not guaranteed, and respect cannot be a one-way expectation. Today’s tougher questions at the border are not just about security forms; they are a reminder that sovereignty speaks loudest in who gets to cross, and on whose terms.