The Trump administration said Tuesday it has halted all immigration applications, including green card and US citizenship processing, filed by immigrants from 19 non-European countries, citing concerns over national security and public safety.
The ban applies to people from 19 countries that were already subject to a partial travel ban in June, imposing further restrictions on immigration – a core feature of Donald Trump’s political platform.
The list of countries includes Afghanistan and Somalia.
The official memo outlining the new policy cited an attack on US National Guard members in Washington last week in which an Afghan man was arrested as a suspect. One National Guard member was killed and another seriously injured in the shooting.
Trump has escalated his rhetoric against Somalis in recent days, calling them “trash” and saying “we don’t want them in our country”.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has aggressively prioritized immigration enforcement, sending federal agents to major US cities and turning away asylum seekers at the US-Mexico border. His administration has repeatedly emphasized crackdown on deportations but has so far placed less emphasis on efforts to reshape legal immigration.
The flurry of sanctions promised following the attacks on National Guard members suggests a growing focus on legal immigration related to protecting national security and shifting blame to Joe Biden for his policies.
The list of countries targeted in Wednesday’s memo also includes Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Yemen, which were subject to the most severe immigration restrictions in June, including a complete suspension on entries with some exceptions.
Others on the list of 19 countries that were hit with partial sanctions in June are Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The new policy places a hold on pending applications and mandates that all immigrants from the list of countries “must undergo a thorough re-review process, including a potential interview and, if necessary, re-interview, to fully assess all national security and public safety threats.”
The memo cites several recent crimes suspected to have been committed by immigrants, including an attack on the National Guard.
Sharvari Dalal-Dheny, senior director of government relations for the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said the organization has received reports of canceled swearing-in ceremonies, naturalization interviews and adjustments of status interviews for individuals from countries listed on the travel ban.
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