Crackdown on applications from countries also under travel restrictions comes after shooting of two national guards<\/b>
\nCrackdown on applications from countries also under travel restrictions comes after shooting of two national guards
Immigration groups and lawmakers are sharply criticizing Donald Trump\u2019s 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 \u201cadjudicative hold\u201d on all asylum applications \u201cregardless of the alien\u2019s country of nationality\u201d, as well as a review of individuals from \u201chigh-risk countries\u201d who entered the US following Joe Biden\u2019s 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 \u2013 all of which have either partial or full travel restrictions.
The latest immigration crackdown follows last week\u2019s shooting of two national guard members in Washington DC, one of whom died. The alleged assailant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal \u2013 a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the US in September 2021 after the US\u2019s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan \u2013 was granted asylum by the Trump administration earlier this year.
In Tuesday\u2019s memo, the USCIS stated: \u201cRecently, the United States has seen what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people \u2026 In light of identified concerns and the threat to the American people, USCIS 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.\u201d
Critics have condemned what they have described as an attempt by the White House to \u201cscapegoat\u201d migrant communities.
In a statement to the Guardian, Human Rights Watch\u2019s US director Tanya Greene said: \u201cNothing meaningfully links these 19 countries except the administration\u2019s opportunistic stigmatization and exclusion of people based on where they were born. This sweeping change is not about safety; it is about scapegoating entire nationalities for the actions of one individual. This policy will tear families apart, endanger people fleeing persecution and further damage US credibility on human rights.\u201d
Similarly, the National Immigrant Justice Center said: \u201cThe Trump administration is using the tragic shooting of two national guard members to scapegoat and roll out yet another ban on Black and brown migrants. Where there is grief and heartbreak, the Trump administration sees opportunity \u2013 ie, the opportunity to unveil more racist and anti-immigrant policies.
\u201cNeither of these policies are responsive to the tragic events of last week. These actions will put countless individuals and families in limbo and jeopardize their right to due process and protection under US and international law,\u201d it added.
Meanwhile, Uzra Zeya, CEO of the non-profit Human Rights First said: \u201cThis is a moment that demands moral courage from our leaders \u2013 not cruelty, not cowardice, and not the disavowal of our most fundamental values.
\u201cThe administration\u2019s sweeping halt to immigration and asylum processing, paired with its divisive and openly bigoted rhetoric in the wake of this attack, is outrageous and dangerous. These actions do nothing but invite further violence, fuel xenophobia, and dehumanize people who have already endured profound trauma,\u201d Zeya continued.
The Council on American-Islamic Relations\u2019s government affairs director, Robert S McCaw, urged Congress to \u201cexercise greater oversight of USCIS and ICE and to investigate the politicized expansion of these discriminatory policies. Freezing asylum nationwide and forcing thousands of people from these 19 countries to undergo new interviews after they have already been thoroughly vetted adds no meaningful safety enhancement.
\u201cPunishing entire nationalities for the actions of a few is ineffective, discriminatory and morally indefensible,\u201d McCaw added.
The National Iranian American Council also issued a statement, saying: \u201cThe level of anguish and insecurity this will cause, on top of already rampant and arbitrary deportations of Iranian nationals, is difficult to understate. People who should be approaching their citizenship ceremony day with joy are suddenly seeing their futures in upheaval.\u201d
It went on to call the latest announcement \u201ca new level of cruelty and racism\u201d.
Lawmakers have also condemned the White House\u2019s latest crackdown on immigration, particularly Trump\u2019s most recent remarks about Somali migrants \u2013 whom he has singled out as \u201cgarbage\u201d \u2013 amid reportedly intensified deportation efforts targeting undocumented Somalis in Minnesota.
Minnesota\u2019s American-Somali Democratic representative, Ilhan Omar \u2013 a frequent target of Trump \u2013 responded by saying: \u201cHe\u2019s always been a racist, a bigot, xenophobic, and Islamophobic \u2026 We know that when he came down that escalator, he said he was going to stop Muslim immigration \u2026 Most of us are citizens \u2026 We love that Minnesota has welcomed us.\u201d
Similarly, Minnesota secretary of state, Steve Simon, said: \u201cCan you even imagine a past president at any time in US history publicly calling Jews or Italians or Poles in America \u2018garbage\u2019, saying \u2018they contribute nothing\u2019, admitting that \u2018I don\u2019t want them in our country,\u2019 and urging them to \u2018go back to where they came from?\u2019 You can\u2019t. But here we are in 2025, with a president who proudly spreads this hateful poison about one particular nationality. It\u2019s pure bigotry. Shameful, ugly, and un-American.\u201d<\/p>\n