MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US shuts doors on foreigners from 19 “high-risk” countries

Haiti, Venezuela, and Cuba are among the countries affected by the USCIS measure

The US Government of President Donald Trump announced this week a pause on the processing of immigration applications for nationals from 19 countries, while simultaneously initiating a review of asylum and immigration cases approved under the previous administration of Joseph Biden.

The Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) formalized the measures in a four-page memo, citing national security and public safety concerns. The document highlighted the need for these measures to ensure that all applicants from the designated “high-risk countries” do not pose a threat.

Nationals from the 19 countries impacted by the processing halt were already subject to some form of entry restriction under a presidential proclamation issued in June.

The administration is also requiring a “comprehensive re-review, potential interview and re-interview” of all foreign nationals from these high-risk countries who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021, when Biden took office from Trump.

The memo explicitly points to Afghan nationals who pleaded guilty to plotting an Election Day attack, and another involved in last week’s fatal shooting of a National Guard member in Washington DC, as justification for the new policy.

“USCIS is committed to safeguarding the American people from public safety and national security threats the Biden administration rubberstamped into the country,” USCIS said on social media. “Nothing is off the table until every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Earlier this week, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem met with President Trump and recommended a full travel ban “on every damn country that's flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies.” Following the shooting, Trump had similarly called for a pause on migration from all “third-world countries.”

The new stance drew strong condemnation from immigration advocacy groups, who argue it targets individuals who have already undergone significant vetting.

The 19 countries affected by the measure are: Afghanistan, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

The comprehensive suspension affects a wide range of immigration benefits for nationals of these countries, including Green Card (Permanent Resident) applications, Naturalization (Citizenship) applications and oath ceremonies, and Asylum applications (for all nationalities, pending a comprehensive review). Ceremonies and consular interviews scheduled for this week were abruptly canceled.