NEW YORK (VINnews) — The White House has paused all immigration applications from 19 countries and canceled citizenship ceremonies across the US, citing national security and public safety concerns. The freeze 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.
Join our WhatsApp groupSubscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
President Donald Trump is also considering expanding the travel ban to more than 30 countries, according to the New York Post.
The new policy memorandum, which was released on Tuesday night, cites last week’s ‘terror attack’ in D.C. where Afghan man Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested for allegedly killing one National Guard member and wounding another.
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.
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. Hundreds of Afghans were seen crowded into cargo jets during the 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.’
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.
Secretary of State Kristi Noem revealed plans on Monday for a ‘full travel ban’ on countries that are sending ‘killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.’
Trump announced in a Truth Social post last Thursday night that he would ‘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’.
‘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 the D.C attack near the White House.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the shooting, and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe is now fighting for his life. The shooting suspect, Rahmanullah 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’.
Lakanwal was granted asylum in April – which made him eligible for a green card after one year in the US. He is now facing first degree murder charges after Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day.
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 announced in June.
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.’
‘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 New York 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.’
So they’re concerned about discrimination against immigrants??
‘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.
Well yeah, they’re born in countries that don’t uphold western values and freedoms, if they associate with terrorists and evil people, if they have ideas that go against American values and truths, and if they practice a religion that thinks it’s ok to murder people and that women are treated like slaves.
Those people don’t fit here and they can only harm our country
Collective punishment is now the Law of the Land in USA. Not very Torahdik.