UNITED STATES: US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday that his administration would “permanently pause” migration from what he called “Third World Countries,” following the death of a National Guard member in an attack near the White House. The move marks Trump’s sharpest escalation on immigration since Wednesday’s shooting, which investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national who arrived in the United States in 2021 under a resettlement program.
Trump did not specify which nations he considers “Third World Countries” nor define what a permanent pause entails. He said the plan would also target immigration cases approved during former President Joe Biden’s administration, including those he characterized as “illegal admissions.”
In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens,” denaturalize migrants who “undermine domestic tranquility,” and deport those deemed security risks, public charges, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.” Neither the White House nor U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services responded to requests for comment.
The announcement came after the death of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was killed in the ambush. Another member, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition. Homeland Security officials said Trump has ordered a full review of asylum approvals issued under Biden and a reassessment of Green Cards granted to citizens of 19 countries.
The suspect in the attack entered the U.S. legally under a resettlement program created after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. In a separate post before his migration announcement, Trump accused the Biden administration of allowing “hundreds of thousands” of Afghans into the U.S. “unvetted and unchecked” during the evacuation.
USCIS has paused all immigration processing related to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Trump said his administration’s broader goal is to reduce what he called “illegal and disruptive populations,” adding that “only reverse migration can fully cure this situation.” The incident has strengthened Trump’s push for stricter immigration measures, even affecting legal migrants. His administration has already increased immigration enforcement in several major cities, resulting in record deportations. ICE data indicates that over two-thirds of the 53,000 people detained as of November 15 had no criminal convictions.
