WASHINGTON — The Trump administration late Tuesday paused immigration processing for applicants from 19 countries, including six Asian nations — Afghanistan, Iran, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Yemen — freezing work on green card and citizenship applications handled by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).
The move followed the shooting in Washington, D.C., in which two West Virginia National Guard members were attacked by an Afghan national who had been granted asylum. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died; Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded and remains in stable condition. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, pleaded not guilty to several charges on Tuesday.
A USCIS memo directs the agency to place a hold on adjudicating benefits requests — including naturalization — from immigrants from the 19 so-called “high-risk” countries and to re-review any approved requests for immigrants who entered the United States after Jan. 21, 2021, or under the Biden administration. The hold will remain in place until further direction from USCIS Director Joseph Edlow, the memo says.
The complete list of affected non-Asian countries is: 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 covering all 19 nations cited in the order.
The memo also states that USCIS will delay action on all asylum applications and requests for withholding of removal — regardless of applicants’ country of origin — while conducting a comprehensive review. Withholding of removal is an immigration protection granted when returning someone to their home country would pose serious danger; it typically requires identifying a third, safer country.
USCIS acknowledged the pause may delay adjudication for some pending applicants but said the agency weighed that consequence against the need to ensure applicants are thoroughly vetted. “USCIS has determined that the burden of processing delays that will fall on some applicants is necessary and appropriate…when weighed against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security,” the memo states.
The administration has criticized several temporary protections put in place under the Biden administration, arguing some beneficiaries were not properly vetted. Those measures included a special program for Afghan allies who fled after the U.S. withdrawal in 2021 and humanitarian parole for migrants 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.
