The Trump administration has paused all immigration applications from 19 countries it has deemed high risk, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday evening, citing the shooting of two National Guard members last week, allegedly by an Afghan national who once worked with a CIA-organized counter-terrorism outfit.
The nations from which all immigration applications have been put on hold are Afghanistan, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The list was pulled from a presidential proclamation in June that called for partial or total entry restrictions for all nationals from these countries, which has been referred to as a near-total travel ban. Immigration applications will be paused for all people who were born in these 19 countries or hold citizenship there, DHS said in its policy memorandum.
“This memorandum mandates that all aliens 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,” the document states.
The memorandum also leaves room for the agency to reassess individuals on other grounds of “inadmissibility or ineligibility” — a sweeping clause of the Immigration and Nationality Act that allows the president to deny applicants on vague grounds, according to Todd Pomerleau, an immigration lawyer at Rubin & Pomerleau in Boston.
“I guarantee you this will be challenged in a court of law, probably before the ink is dry,” Pomerleau said. “This is basically allowing for the targeting of people because of their nationality, because of where they’re born, who they may associate with, and any ideas they may have, religions they may practice.”
Pausing all applications based on where people are born marks a heightened level of scrutiny, according to Pomerleau, who drew parallels to some of the controversial immigration enforcement measures taken in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Following the attacks, all males 16 or older from 24 Muslim-majority countries were compelled to register with the U.S. government. The program drew widespread criticism from civil and human rights groups, and was discontinued in 2011.
In light of the Trump administration’s latest memorandum, “just being born in another country now puts you under the microscope of aggressive immigration and customs enforcement,” Pomerleau said.
“I don’t think where people are born necessarily portends what they’re going to become when they’re in the United States,” he added.
Pomerleau expects the move to dial up stress on the immigration system and plunge thousands of cases into added layers of bureaucracy.
“A normal application used to take six months. Now it takes two, three years,” he said. “And during those two or three years, they often ask for more evidence, more evidence, more evidence. It just seems like you can never get to the finish line.”
The move comes after President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi L. Noem called for an intensified immigration crackdown following the shooting last week of two National Guard members, one fatally, in D.C.
The shooting suspect was identified as a 29-year-old national of Afghanistan, whose motives are being examined by authorities. He was granted asylum in the U.S. in April and once worked in association with the CIA — a role that would have potentially exposed him to danger if he had remained there after the U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021.
Earlier, on Monday, Noem said that she had met with Trump and recommended that he institute “a full travel ban” on an unspecified list of countries that she alleged criminals have emigrated from. She also accused the Biden administration — without evidence — of failing to properly vet Afghan asylum seekers.
Noem on Monday also announced vague, intensified screening measures for all immigration applicants, including a vetting of their social media accounts, a cross-check of biometric data and criminal history with their country of origin, and directives to “check-in” with the government “every year.” She appeared to invoke the shooting in D.C. as a reason for the heightened scrutiny.
But several immigration experts said that the U.S. has long vetted immigration applicants intensely, and pointed to a broader trend of the Trump administration expanding its justifications for barring or delaying foreign nationals’ entry into the U.S.
“This sort of cross-checking of records, seeking information about past criminal behavior — that is all part of the very, very narrow path towards legal immigration status in the United States,” said Sameer Ashar, a clinical professor of law at the University of California at Irvine. “The DHS is basically built to vet any visa applicants or asylum seekers to make sure they’re law-abiding and that they’re going to be good residents in the United States.”
Raquel Aldana, a professor of law at the University of California at Davis, said there has been increasing concern “around an expansion of screening that is nebulous and ill-defined.”
“Congress has created quite a laundry list of grounds that could render you ineligible to immigrate,” she said. “… What is happening now is that the Trump administration is creating new grounds to say that you are not fit to come to the United States.”
By KELLY KASULIS CHO/Washington Post