Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem has said she will recommend travel bans on several countries she claims are “flooding” the US with criminal activity.
Writing on social media on Monday, Noem said she had met with President Donald Trump and had decided to “suggest a complete travel ban on every country that is filling our country with murderers, leeches and power junkies”.
After this, Trump and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shared Noem’s post on their respective official social media accounts.
It is not yet clear which countries the proposed travel ban will affect or when it might begin. DHS told the BBC it would announce the list soon.
White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt told Fox News on Monday evening that Trump had announced a travel ban on “third world and failed state” countries several months ago, and Noem’s recommendation would “expand” it to include more countries.
On June 4, the White House listed 19 countries, primarily in Africa, the Middle East, and the Caribbean, that would face full or partial immigration restrictions.
Noem’s comments come days after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, DC, last Wednesday. Before her comments about the travel ban, Noem wrote on social media that 100,000 Afghan citizens entered the US under the Biden-era Operation Allies Welcome program, and she said DHS would improve the vetting process.
Authorities identified the suspect in the DC shooting as an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 as part of a program designed for locals who served with US troops during the 20-year US deployment in Afghanistan.
According to emails from last year, which were obtained by the BBC’s US partner, CBS News, the suspect struggled with his mental health after arriving in the US.
The Trump administration has stepped up its immigration crackdown in the wake of the shootings, which killed 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and seriously injured 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey told reporters on Monday that Mr. Wolf had responded to nurses with a thumbs-up, but he remained in critical condition in the hospital.
All decisions on asylum requests were also halted following the DC shootings, with US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow saying it would remain halted “until we can ensure that every alien is screened and vetted to the maximum extent possible”.
Edlow also said Trump has asked him to review green cards issued to people immigrating to the US from 19 countries.
On Thursday, Trump himself went further, threatening to “permanently halt migration” from all “third world countries.” The phrase “Third World” was previously used to describe poor, developing countries.
In his Thanksgiving social media post, Trump blamed refugees for causing “social dysfunction in America” and vowed to remove “anyone who is not a net asset to America.”
During his second presidential term, Trump has sought to implement mass deportations of illegal immigrants, cut the annual number of refugee admissions, and end the automatic citizenship rights that currently apply to many people born on U.S. territory.
The Afghan Community Coalition of the United States issued a statement following the DC attack, expressing sympathy with the families of the victims, calling for a “comprehensive investigation” and emphasizing that it was the act of one individual. The statement also urged the US government not to delay or suspend Afghan immigration claims.
“The twenty-year-old Afghan-US partnership must not be forgotten,” the coalition statement said, pointing to the two-decade effort launched by the US in 2001 to oust Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers and establish security in the country.
News agency Reuters reported that the United Nations has urged the US to follow international agreements on asylum seekers.
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