Date: Friday, 28 November 2025
Published
Law enforcement officers secure the area after a shooting in downtown Washington, DC, on November 26, 2025 [AFP]President Donald Trump has vowed to "permanently pause migration" to the United States from "Third World" countries in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
While it was not clear exactly which nations the President was referring to when he made the comments late Thursday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has indicated it will be reviewing green cards of people who have immigrated to the U.S. from 19 countries.
When asked which nations would have their citizens’ green cards re-examined, the USCIS pointed to a June proclamation signed by Trump that included Haiti, Iran, Libya, and Afghanistan.
The Trump administration has begun a sweeping review and, in some cases, a freeze of immigration applications and green card approvals following a high-profile shooting near the White House, in which one of the targets, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed and another, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was left fighting for his life.
The incident, which involved a suspect from Afghanistan, has reignited the national debate over vetting of immigrants and the scope of U.S. border and asylum policy.
The Department of Homeland Security’s USCIS will be conducting a "full-scale, rigorous reexamination" of immigrants to the U.S. from "every country of concern," the agency’s director, Joseph B. Edlow, announced Thursday in a post on X.
When asked which countries Edlow was referring to, the USCIS highlighted a proclamation by the White House restricting entry to the United States for nationals from 19 countries, citing concerns over deficient vetting and information sharing, as well as the inability of these governments to provide reliable data on their citizens.
The proclamation states: "Many of these countries have also taken advantage of the United States in their exploitation of our visa system and their historic failure to accept back their removable nationals."
The following countries have been identified as having deficiencies in their screening processes and posing "significant risks of overstaying their visas in the United States."
Full suspension of entry now applies to nationals from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.
Partial restrictions affect Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela, with tightened visa criteria and limited durations.
Exact details on the application of these suspensions—particularly case-by-case waivers and categorical exceptions—remain limited.
Trump said: "I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden's Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States."
Joseph Edlow, director of the USCIS, said: "The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies. American safety is non-negotiable."
A review of academic work in the Annual Review of Criminology has disputed claims that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than U.S. residents. It says: "With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States."
Applicants from the named countries who are already in the final stages of green card processing have been assured that the proclamation "shall not apply to an individual who has been granted asylum by the United States, to a refugee who has already been admitted to the United States, or to an individual granted withholding of removal or protection under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (CAT)."
It adds: "Nothing in this proclamation shall be construed to limit the ability of an individual to seek asylum, refugee status, withholding of removal, or protection under the CAT, consistent with the laws of the United States."
