Immigration applications from 19 non‑European countries, including green card and citizenship requests, were paused Tuesday by the Trump administration, which pointed to national security and public safety risks.
The pause applies to people from 19 countries that were already subjected to a partial travel ban in June, placing further restrictions on immigration – a core feature of U.S. President Donald Trump’s political platform.
The list of countries includes Afghanistan and Somalia.
Trump’s Deportation Push
The official memorandum outlining the new policy cites the attack on U.S. National Guard members in Washington last week in which an Afghan man has been arrested as a suspect. One member of the National Guard was killed and another was critically wounded in the shooting.
Trump has also stepped up rhetoric against Somalis in recent days, calling them “garbage” and saying “we don’t want them in our country.”
Since January, Trump has focused on immigration enforcement—deploying agents to U.S. cities and blocking asylum seekers—while largely downplaying changes to legal immigration until now.
Targeted Countries
The list of countries targeted in Wednesday’s memorandum includes Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, which were subjected to the most severe immigration restrictions in June, including a full suspension on entries with a few exceptions.
Others on the list of 19 countries, which were subjected to partial restrictions in June, are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Applications on Hold
The new policy places a hold on pending applications and mandates that all immigrants from the list of countries “undergo a thorough re-review process, including a potential interview and, if necessary, a re-interview, to fully assess all national security and public safety threats.”
The memorandum cited several recent crimes suspected to have been committed by immigrants, including the National Guard attack.
(With inputs from Reuters)
