Donald Trump’s White House has paused all immigration applications from 19 countries and canceled citizenship ceremonies across the US due to national security and public safety concerns.
The pause, which went into effect on Tuesday, applies to people from nations that were already subjected to a partial travel ban in June, placing further restrictions on immigration.
It could affect more than 1.5 million people who had asylum applications pending and more than 50,000 who received asylum grants under the Biden administration, The New York Times reports.
The president is also considering expanding the travel ban to more than 30 countries, according to the New York Post.
The official memorandum outlining the new policy cites the attack on US 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.
The ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen while the restricted access applied to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
It puts a stop to all immigration related activities, including a temporary suspension on the completion of citizenship ceremonies, involving legal permanent residents of the 19 countries, per CBS News.
‘The Trump administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,’ US Citizenship and Immigration Services spokesman Matthew Tragesser.
‘We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.’
According to a Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The Washington Post, anyone attempting to migrate to the US will need to be vetted again.
‘This memorandum mandates that all aliens meeting these criteria 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,’ it states.
It also allows DHS to potentially block applicants using a broad definition of ‘inadmissibility or ineligibility.’
Todd Pomerleau, an immigration attorney recently in the news for representing the mother of Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt’s nephew in court, said it will be challenged in court ‘before the ink is dry.’
‘This is basically allowing for the targeting of people because of their nationality, because of where they’re born, who they may associate with, and any ideas they may have, religions they may practice,’ he said.
Trump blasted former president Joe Biden for letting unvetted migrants stream into America – claiming he allowed the Afghan shooting suspect into the US during the disastrous 2021 withdrawal.
He has also stepped up his rhetoric against Somalis in recent days, calling them ‘garbage’ and declaring ‘we don´t want them in our country.’
Trump then announced in a Truth Social post on Thursday night that he will ‘permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.’
‘Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,’ he wrote in the Truth Social post, as he vowed to end all federal benefits for noncitizens, denaturalize migrants who undermine the US, and deport any foreign nationals deemed a security risk or ‘non-compatible with Western Civilization’.
Then on Monday, Secretary of State Kristi Noem revealed plans for a ‘full travel ban’ on countries that are sending ‘killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.’
‘Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom – not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.’
Federal officials have described the move as a ‘full scale, rigorous’ process and a dramatic escalation triggered by Wednesday’s deadly attack in which 29-year-old Afghan Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly shot two National Guardsmen who were on duty near the White House.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting, and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe is now fighting for his life.
Lakanwal arrived in America in 2021 as part of the disastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistan after serving as an ally of Special Forces troops in his CIA-backed ‘Zero Unit’.
During the withdrawal incredible photos and video showed hundreds of Afghans running to board cargo jets. On one plane 640 migrants were overloaded into an aircraft designed to carry 150.
Still, Lakanwal was granted asylum in April – which made him eligible for a green card after one year in the US.
The dad-of-five is now facing first degree murder charges after Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day.
But this is not the first time Trump has limited immigration since taking office for the second time.
In June, the president signed a proclamation to ‘fully restrict and limit the entry of nationals’ following an antisemitic firebombing attack in Colorado, which was allegedly perpetuated by Mohamed Soliman, an Egyptian national in the US on an expired tourist visa.
The 19 countries included in Tuesday’s travel ban were then subjected to partial restrictions.
When Trump initially put the restrictions in place, he said that the tragedy in Boulder ‘underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreign nationals who are not properly vetted.
‘We’ve seen one terror attack after another from foreign visa overstayers… thanks to Biden’s open door policies today there are millions and millions of these illegals who should not be in our country.’
Under the new policy, pending immigration applications are paused and all immigrants from the list of countries are required to ‘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.’
It came after an internal Citizenship and Immigration Services guidance released on Monday directed employees to ‘stop final adjudication on all cases,’ involving immigrants from the 19 countries, according to CBS News.
The pause included the completion of citizenship ceremonies for legal US permanent residents from the 19 countries who were on the cusp of becoming naturalized citizens.
Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the organization had already received reports of cancelled oath ceremonies, naturalization interviews and adjustment of status interviews for individuals from countries listed on the travel ban.
Even more may soon be affected, as the Department of Homeland Security considers expanding the list to more than 30 countries, with a spokesperson telling the Post that the agency ‘will be announcing the list soon.’
‘The Trump administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,’ the DHS spokesperson told the Post.
‘We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake,’ he continued, noting that the Trump administration is ‘reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from countries of concern.’
