The Department of Homeland Security is intensifying the processing of immigration applications after two National Guard members were shot by an Afghan citizen.
The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced, in a statement on Tuesday, that it will suspend the review of all pending green card, citizenship, or asylum applications from immigrants from 19 countries listed in a previous travel ban.
In June, President Trump announced the travel ban against 12 countries and partial restrictions against another seven, following an incendiary bomb attack in Colorado.
The citizenship and immigration agency also plans to reassess and reinterview immigrants from these countries, potentially going back to 2021, amid stricter scrutiny of those who followed legal procedures to seek permanent residency in the US.
“The Trump administration is doing everything possible to ensure that the individuals who become citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson told NPR in a statement. “We will not take risks when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to foreigners from Countries of Concern.”
The travel ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, and additional access restrictions apply to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Migrants from all 19 countries are affected by the suspension of pending applications and the review of previously approved applications.
Previous Refugee Restrictions
Last month, USCIS, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced that it would reassess the status of all those admitted to the US as refugees during the Biden administration, essentially reopening those cases.
A separate memo, sent on November 21 and reviewed by NPR, stated that some people may need to be reinterviewed and may end up losing their legal refugee status.
The most recent memo represents an escalation in the crackdown on immigration following the attack in Washington, D.C. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan citizen, was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting two National Guard members near the White House just before Thanksgiving. He had been granted asylum earlier this year, during the Trump administration, after entering the US through a temporary humanitarian parole program from the Biden administration.
In an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the agency will indefinitely suspend the processing of all asylum applications while working to reduce a backlog of one million cases.
Source: npr.org by Ximena Bustillo