United States President Donald Trump has moved to widen the government’s immigration clampdown, saying he intends to halt immigration from what he called “all Third World countries”. His declaration came a day after officials identified an Afghan national as the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, an incident that immediately fueled political tension.
Trump announced the plan on his Truth Social platform, where he said he would “permanently pause” migration from developing nations so the American system can, in his words, recover. He also repeated promises to remove immigrants who, he claimed, do not contribute to the country or do not show loyalty to it. He added that federal benefits for noncitizens would end and that migrants who threaten domestic stability or depend heavily on public support would face denaturalisation and deportation.
The president had already ordered a sweeping re-examination of green card applications from nineteen countries labelled “countries of concern”. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow confirmed he had directed his agency to carry out what he described as an intensive review. His office pointed to a June four proclamation that already restricted entry for nationals of Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Myanmar, Venezuela and Yemen, among others. Afghan immigration requests had previously been put on indefinite hold while security procedures were reassessed.
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The sharper tone from the White House followed the naming of Rahmanaullah Lakanwal, twenty nine, as the suspect in the Washington shooting. Federal prosecutors said he arrived in the United States through Operation Allies Welcome, a programme created after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. Authorities, including the FBI, are now reviewing his background and the vetting process that cleared him.
The administration has embraced a broader strategy of tightening the country’s doors. In October, it set the refugee ceiling for 2026 at seven thousand five hundred, the lowest intake since the modern resettlement system began in 1980. A confidential memo, later obtained by the Associated Press, revealed that officials are also reviewing roughly two hundred thousand refugees admitted during President Joe Biden’s tenure and have suspended green card applications for those arrivals while the audit continues.
The result is a rapidly expanding immigration regime, one shaped as much by political reaction as by long-term policy design.