iDeemlawfulAmerican President, Donald Trump administration, on Tuesday said it has paused all immigration applications, including green card and U.S. citizenship processing, for immigrants from 19 countries over national security and public safety concerns.
The move expands the partial travel restrictions introduced in June, forming a key component of Trump’s immigration agenda.
The memorandum announcing the freeze referenced last week’s deadly attack on U.S. National Guard members in Washington, where an Afghan man was arrested in connection with the incident.
One Guard member died, and another sustained critical injuries. Trump has also stepped up criticism of Somalis, labeling them “garbage” and insisting “we don’t want them in our country.”
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Since returning to office for the second time, Trump has intensified immigration enforcement, deploying federal agents to major U.S. cities and tightening access for asylum seekers at the U.S.–Mexico border.
While deportation operations have been widely publicized, the administration has said little about shifts to legal immigration.
The latest directives suggest a broader national-security-driven strategy and reflect criticism of former President Joe Biden’s policies. The new rule places all pending applications on hold and mandates that immigrants from the listed 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.”
See the full list of affected countries below:
- Afghanistan
- Burma
- Chad
- Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Libya
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Yemen
- Burundi
- Cuba
- Laos
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
President Trump has repeatedly pledged to halt illegal migration into the US, describing undocumented entrants as drug addicts, criminals, terrorists and dealers. He also threatened to remove thousands of people who entered the country during former President Joe Biden’s tenure.