In his latest crackdown on immigration, United States President Donald Trump has paused all applications from 19 countries his administration describes as “high-risk”.
The recent moves comes after last week’s a shooting in Washington of two National Guard troops by a suspect who is an Afghan national.
Details were outlined in a policy memo posted on the Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website, the agency which processes and approves all requests for immigration benefits.
The pause includes green card requests and US citizenship processing filed by people from nations already facing a partial or full travel ban since June.
All 19 of the countries are non-European and include Afghanistan and Somalia. The rest are Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Yemen. There is partial restriction for Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Trump has stepped up rhetoric against Somalis in recent days, calling them “garbage” and saying “we don’t want them in our country.”
The new policy places a hold on pending applications. The USCIS said immigrants from countries on the list must “undergo a thorough re-review process” to determine “all national security and public safety threats”.
This applies to “all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021,” the agency said.
