WASHINGTON — The Trump administration late Tuesday paused all immigration applications from 19 countries the president earlier had listed for restricted travel into the United States, freezing processing for green card holders and citizenship applications. Included were Asian countries Afghanistan, Iran, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Yemen.
After two West Virginia National Guard members were shot in the District of Columbia by an Afghan national who was granted asylum, the administration moved to halt and reexamine all forms of legal immigration handled by US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
One guard member, US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died, and US Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains critically wounded, though his condition is reported stable. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, pleaded not guilty to several charges on Tuesday.
A USCIS memo says the agency will place a hold on processing benefits requests — including citizenship processing — from immigrants from the 19 “high-risk” countries and will re-review any approved requests for immigrants who entered the US after Jan. 21, 2021, or under the Biden administration.
The non-Asian countries with travel restrictions into the US are: Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo and Venezuela. In June the president issued a travel ban on all 19 countries affected by the latest order.
The hold will remain in place until otherwise directed by USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, according to the memo.
The memo also states that USCIS will delay action on all applications for asylum and withholdings for removal, regardless of country of origin, “pending a comprehensive review.” A withholding of removal is granted by an immigration judge when a country is deemed too dangerous to return an immigrant, requiring identification of a third, safer country.
“USCIS has considered that this direction may result in delay to the adjudication of some pending applications and has weighed that consequence against the urgent need for the agency to ensure that applicants are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” the memo says. “Ultimately, USCIS has determined that the burden of processing delays that will fall on some applicants is necessary and appropriate in this instance, when weighed against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security.”
President Donald Trump and his administration have often criticized immigrants who were granted temporary legal protections under the Biden administration, arguing they were not properly vetted. That has included a special program created for Afghan allies fleeing the Taliban takeover after the chaotic US withdrawal in 2021, as well as Latin Americans granted humanitarian parole from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
This article was originally published by Georgia Recorder, part of States Newsroom, and is republished under a Creative Commons license.
