The Trump administration is halting all immigration applications, including green cards and U.S. citizenship processing, for immigrants from 19 countries over national security and public safety concerns. Immigration agents have been told to "stop final adjudication on all cases" and pause naturalisation ceremonies for migrants on the cusp of gaining citizenship. The move expands the partial travel restrictions introduced in June, a key part of Trump’s immigration agenda.
The memorandum announcing the pause refers to last week’s attack on the U.S. National Guard members in Washington, where an Afghan man has been arrested as a suspect.
The latest move from the White House comes as Trump increasingly blames migrants and refugees for causing what he terms the US's "social dysfunction".
The U.S. has intensified its immigration crackdown after Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed and Andrew Wolfe, 24, was seriously injured in the shooting last Wednesday in the national capital.
The suspect who has been arrested is originally from Afghanistan and had travelled to the US under a programme that offered special protections to Afghans who had worked with US forces before the return to power of the Taliban.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has focused heavily on immigration enforcement, sending federal agents to major U.S. cities and limiting access for asylum seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border. While deportation efforts have been highlighted, the administration has said less about changes to legal immigration.
The new measures announced after the National Guard attack indicate a wider push tied to national security and criticism of former President Joe Biden’s policies.
The policy puts all pending applications on hold and requires immigrants from the listed countries 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.”
The countries are listed below:
1. Afghanistan
2. Burma
3. Chad
4 Congo
5. Equatorial Guinea
6. Eritrea
7. Haiti
8. Iran
9. Libya
10. Somalia
11. Sudan
12. Yemen
13. Burundi
14. Cuba
15. Laos
16. Sierra Leone
17. Togo
18. Turkmenistan
19. Venezuela
