Venezuelan community college student Ivanna De Gregorio was enjoying the summer in her home country when the travel ban was announced, prompting her to switch her return to the U.S. from Aug. 11 to Friday.

She did not want to risk jeopardizing the student visa that allows her to study at a Mississippi school on a tennis scholarship.

“It came as a surprise because I was going to spend my entire break here,” she said standing in line at the airport outside Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, with her mom, who does not have a tourist visa and teared up at the thought of not knowing when she will see her only child again.

Ivana, who has played tennis for 14 years, said it was a lifelong project.

No commercial airline offers direct flights between the South American country and the U.S. So, De Gregorio’s itinerary includes three flights: first to Bogota, then to Atlanta, and lastly to New Jersey, where she will live with an uncle until her school reopens in August.

“In view of the whole issue, a WhatsApp group was created with all the classmates who are in Venezuela… and we agreed on changing the flights as soon as possible,” Ivana's mother, Irene De Gregorio said.

“The interpretations of (the ban) were varied. So, well, we decided to change the ticket for today.”

U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday resurrected a hallmark policy of his first term, announcing that citizens of 12 countries would be banned from visiting the United States and those from seven others would face restrictions.

The new ban includes Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

There will be heightened restrictions on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

AP video by Juan Arraez