Trump halts all immigration applications from 19 countries in wake of DC National Guard shooting

The Trump administration has halted all immigration applications from 19 countries that were already under travel restrictions to the United States following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C.

A memorandum issued Tuesday by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said that a “comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern” who entered the U.S. on or after January 20, 2021, was necessary.

“USCIS has determined that it must implement an adjudicative hold on all pending asylum applications, regardless of the alien’s country of nationality, as well as pending benefit requests filed by aliens from high-risk countries,” the memorandum said.

“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 memo added.

Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who pleaded not guilty to murder for the shooting on Thanksgiving eve, entered the U.S. legally under the Biden administration and was also granted asylum after President Donald Trump took office this year.

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West Virginia service member Sarah Beckstrom died from injuries sustained in the attack, while a second guardsman, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, remains in serious condition.

People seeking immigration status from the 19 nations designated high risk by the Trump administration include those applying for green cards and U.S. citizenship. Many wait months, sometimes years, for their immigration status to be granted.

The countries affected by the pause, some of the most unstable nations in the world, are those previously banned by Trump in June and include Afghanistan, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen.

Nationals from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela were partially banned from entering the U.S. by Trump and are impacted by the pause.

“The Trump administration is making every effort to ensure individuals who are becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” Matthew Tragesser, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, told The New York Times, which first reported the pause. “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake.”

The halt follows Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s proposal of a sweeping new travel ban on “every damn country that's been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies” in a post on X Monday.

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“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom—not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS,” Noem said.

The president later shared her post on Truth Social without further comment, while the official DHS X account added: "EVERY DAMN COUNTRY.”

More than 1 million people are awaiting decisions on their asylum applications, according to a 2024 report from Homeland Security. From those cases, more than 786,000 people were waiting more than 180 days for a decision in their affirmative asylum cases.

Immigration lawyers told the Times that in the wake of the memo, their clients’ interviews had been canceled on arrival “with no clear reason.”

Lawyers raised concerns about how the pause would impact the already strained system.

“Everything is being put on hold,” Texas immigration lawyer Ana Maria Schwartz told the outlet. “It is just like a traffic jam, and it is just going to get worse and worse and worse.”