Crackdown on applications from countries also under travel restrictions comes after shooting of two national guards
Immigration groups and lawmakers are sharply criticizing Donald Trump’s latest move to halt immigration applications from 19 countries already under US travel restrictions, a decision that comes amid reports that naturalization ceremonies for people on the travel ban list are also being canceled.
On Tuesday the US Citizenship and Immigration Services posted a policy memo that announced an immediate “adjudicative hold” on all asylum applications “regardless of the alien’s country of nationality”, as well as a review of individuals from “high-risk countries” who entered the US following Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.
The 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen – all of which have either partial or full travel restrictions.
The latest immigration crackdown follows last week’s shooting of two national guard members in Washington DC, one of whom died. The alleged assailant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal – a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the US in September 2021 after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan – was granted asylum by the Trump administration earlier this year.
