The Trump administration paused immigration from 19 nations and all asylum applications

 

The Trump administration has recently paused immigration applications for individuals from 19 nations and halted all asylum decisions, a move that followed Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem's public recommendation for a full travel ban on several countries.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) issued internal guidance to "stop final adjudication on all cases" for individuals from 19 countries that were already subject to travel restrictions under a presidential proclamation issued in June. The list of countries facing these restrictions includes Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Venezuela, and Cuba.

The administration has also paused all asylum applications, regardless of nationality, pending a comprehensive review.

Following a meeting with President Trump, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem publicly advocated for a more expansive ban, calling for a "full travel ban on every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies".

These actions and recommendations came in the wake of a shooting in Washington, D.C. that killed one National Guard member and wounded another. The suspect in that incident was an Afghan national who had been granted asylum.

Sources indicate the administration is considering expanding the travel ban to include around 30 to 32 countries in total, an increase from the current 19.

At a Tuesday Cabinet meeting, Trump lashed out at immigrants from Somalia in response to an ongoing benefit fraud case out of Minnesota involving dozens of members of the East African diaspora.

“Somalians ripped off [Minnesota] for billions of dollars,” the president said, adding: “They contribute nothing. I don’t want them in our country.”

Trump issued the initial June proclamation following an antisemitic firebomb attack in Colorado, which was allegedly carried out by an Egyptian national in the US on an expired tourist visa.

That order fully restricted travel to the US from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Partial restrictions were imposed on entering the US by citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. These measures are part of a broader crackdown on immigration by the Trump administration.