Trump admin pauses Green Card, US citizenship applications from 19 ‘countries of concern’

New York/Washington: The Trump administration has paused with immediate effect Green Card, US citizenship and other immigration applications from 19 “countries of concern”.

The directive came amid intensified crackdown on immigration in the wake of a shooting of National Guard soldiers by an Afghan national last month.

A policy memorandum on Tuesday directed the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to “place on hold”, effective immediately, all asylum applications, regardless of the immigrant’s country of nationality, pending a comprehensive review.

The directive also places on hold all applications for Green Cards, US citizenship requests and other immigration applications for immigrants from the 19 countries on whom the Trump administration had placed a travel ban and are considered as "countries of concern” by the White House.

These countries are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela and Yemen.

The applications will be on hold “pending a comprehensive review, regardless of entry date”, the directive said.

These are the same countries that were subject to a travel ban announced by US President Donald Trump in a proclamation issued in June this year.

The proclamation ‘Restricting the Entry of Foreign Nationals to Protect the United States from Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats' restricted and limited the entry of nationals of these countries into the US and applied to both immigrants and non-immigrants.

The new guidance came in the wake of the tragic shooting of US Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and US Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24 by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal.

Trump announced during a call with service members on Thanksgiving that Beckstrom had died of her injuries. Wolfe remained in critical condition.

Lakanwal, 29, had arrived in the US through a Biden-era immigration programme called ‘Operation Allies Welcome’ for Afghan nationals fleeing their country after the August 2021 Taliban takeover.

The USCIS said it has determined that a “comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview” of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 is necessary.

Lastly, the USCIS may, “when appropriate, extend this review and re-interview process to aliens who entered the United States outside of this timeframe”.

The USCIS said the memorandum mandates that all individuals meeting these criteria undergo a “thorough re-review process, including a potential interview and, if necessary, a re-interview, to fully assess all national security and public safety threats along with any other related grounds of inadmissibility or ineligibility”.

The memorandum said USCIS personnel are instructed to prioritise national security and public safety concerns and ensure compliance with all applicable laws and regulations during the adjudication process.

Citing the attack by Lakanwal, the directive said that “recently, the United States has seen what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritising expedient adjudications can do to the American people”.