The Trump administration on Tuesday halted immigration applications submitted by nationals from 19 countries that already faced restrictions on travel to the United States, according to a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo.
“USCIS has considered that this direction may result in delay to the adjudication of some pending applications and has weighed that consequence against the urgent need for the agency to ensure that applicants are vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” the agency said in a four-page policy memo.
“Ultimately, USCIS has determined that the burden of processing delays that will fall on some applicants is necessary and appropriate in this instance, when weighed against the agency’s obligation to protect and preserve national security,” it added.
The New York Times first reported the immigration pause, which applies to both green card and citizenship applicants.
A spokesperson for the USCIS office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new policy Tuesday night.
The move comes less than week after two National Guard members were shot on patrol in Washington, D.C., leaving one dead and the other critically wounded. The suspect, who pleaded not guilty to murder Tuesday, is an Afghan national who entered the United States legally during the Biden administration and was granted asylum after President Donald Trump took office for a second time.
According to USCIS, more than 1.4 million people have pending asylum applications that could be affected by the new pause.
The application hold pertains to people from 19 countries the Trump administration designated as high risk who are trying to get their immigration statuses processed by the agency. The list primarily targets African and Asian countries.
Trump signed a proclamation in June fully banning nationals from 12 countries — among them Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen — from entering the United States and partially restricting the entry of nationals from seven others: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said in a Newsmax interview Monday that following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, he does not believe the Afghan nationals who came to the United States “were properly vetted.”
His office said Monday on X, “Nothing is off the table until every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Monday on X that she met with Trump and recommended “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”