The US government has stopped accepting immigration applications from citizens of 19 countries — among them Afghanistan, Yemen, and Haiti — according to an official memorandum released Tuesday, intensifying the country’s broad efforts to curb migration.
The memo states that authorities have suspended the processing of green cards and citizenship applications for individuals from nations already under the travel restrictions President Donald Trump announced in June.
The list of 19 countries also features Venezuela, Sudan, and Somalia.
In recent days, top US officials have indicated that immigration rules would be significantly tightened, a decision influenced by last week’s shooting of two National Guard soldiers.
The primary suspect in the attack, which left one soldier dead, is an Afghan citizen.
The man, who entered the country during the 2021 evacuation following the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan, pleaded not guilty to murder charges on Tuesday.
According to the memorandum, “USCIS plays an instrumental role in preventing terrorists from seeking safe haven in the United States and ensuring that USCIS’ screening and vetting and adjudications prioritize the safety of the American people and uphold all US laws,” referring to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services.
The memo further stated that the US had recently witnessed “what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people,” pointing to the alleged shooter in the recent incident as an example.
Trump, whose presidential campaign focused heavily on removing millions of undocumented migrants, said on November 26 after the shooting that he intended to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.”
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem also called on Monday for an expansion of the countries included in the June travel restrictions.
“I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,” she wrote on X, without specifying which countries she believed should be added.
The current travel restrictions additionally affect Burundi, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Libya, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Togo, and Turkmenistan.
US media also reported Tuesday that federal authorities plan to soon initiate a major immigration enforcement operation in Minnesota targeting Somali immigrants. Local officials, however, pushed back, stating state law enforcement would not take part.
Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey reaffirmed this position, saying, “Our values and our commitments to the Somali community, to every community of immigrants and people in our city is rock solid and will be unwavering.”