Lawmakers decry Trump’s immigration halt for 19 countries: ‘scapegoating entire nationalities’

Immigration groups and lawmakers are sharply criticizing Donald Trump’s latest move to halt immigration applications from 19 countries already under US travel restrictions, a decision that comes amid reports that naturalization ceremonies for people on the travel ban list are also being canceled.On Tuesday US Citizenship and Immigration Services posted a policy memo that announced an immediate “adjudicative hold” on all asylum applications “regardless of the alien’s country of nationality”, as well as a review of individuals from “high-risk countries” who entered the US following Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021.The 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen – all of which have either partial or full travel restrictions.The latest immigration crackdown follows last week’s shooting of two national guard members in Washington DC, one of whom died. The alleged assailant, Rahmanullah Lakanwal – a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the US in September 2021 after the US’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan – was granted asylum by the Trump administration earlier this year.In Tuesday’s memo, USCIS stated: “Recently, the United States has seen what a lack of screening, vetting, and prioritizing expedient adjudications can do to the American people … In light of identified concerns and the threat to the American people, USCIS has determined that a comprehensive re-review, potential interview, and re-interview of all aliens from high-risk countries of concern who entered the United States on or after January 20, 2021 is necessary.”Critics have condemned what they have described as an attempt by the White House to “scapegoat” migrant communities.In a statement to the Guardian, Human Rights Watch’s US director, Tanya Greene, said: “Nothing meaningfully links these 19 countries except the administration’s opportunistic stigmatization and exclusion of people based on where they were born. This sweeping change is not about safety; it is about scapegoating entire nationalities for the actions of one individual. This policy will tear families apart, endanger people fleeing persecution and further damage US credibility on human rights.”Similarly, the National Immigrant Justice Center said: “The Trump administration is using the tragic shooting of two national guard members to scapegoat and roll out yet another ban on Black and brown migrants. Where there is grief and heartbreak, the Trump administration sees opportunity – ie, the opportunity to unveil more racist and anti-immigrant policies.“Neither of these policies are responsive to the tragic events of last week. These actions will put countless individuals and families in limbo and jeopardize their right to due process and protection under US and international law,” it added.Meanwhile, Uzra Zeya, CEO of the non-profit Human Rights First said: “This is a moment that demands moral courage from our leaders – not cruelty, not cowardice, and not the disavowal of our most fundamental values.“The administration’s sweeping halt to immigration and asylum processing, paired with its divisive and openly bigoted rhetoric in the wake of this attack, is outrageous and dangerous. These actions do nothing but invite further violence, fuel xenophobia, and dehumanize people who have already endured profound trauma,” Zeya continued.The Council on American-Islamic Relations’s government affairs director, Robert S McCaw, urged Congress to “exercise greater oversight of USCIS and ICE and to investigate the politicized expansion of these discriminatory policies. Freezing asylum nationwide and forcing thousands of people from these 19 countries to undergo new interviews after they have already been thoroughly vetted adds no meaningful safety enhancement.“Punishing entire nationalities for the actions of a few is ineffective, discriminatory and morally indefensible,” McCaw added.The National Iranian American Council also issued a statement, saying: “The level of anguish and insecurity this will cause, on top of already rampant and arbitrary deportations of Iranian nationals, is difficult to understate. People who should be approaching their citizenship ceremony day with joy are suddenly seeing their futures in upheaval.”It went on to call the latest announcement “a new level of cruelty and racism”.Lawmakers have also condemned the White House’s latest crackdown on immigration, particularly Trump’s most recent remarks about Somali migrants – whom he has singled out as “garbage” – amid reportedly intensified deportation efforts targeting undocumented Somalis in Minnesota.Minnesota’s American-Somali Democratic representative, Ilhan Omar – a frequent target of Trump – responded by saying: “He’s always been a racist, a bigot, xenophobic, and Islamophobic … We know that when he came down that escalator, he said he was going to stop Muslim immigration … Most of us are citizens … We love that Minnesota has welcomed us.”Similarly, Minnesota’s secretary of state, Steve Simon, said: “Can you even imagine a past president at any time in US history publicly calling Jews or Italians or Poles in America ‘garbage’, saying ‘they contribute nothing’, admitting that ‘I don’t want them in our country,’ and urging them to ‘go back to where they came from?’ You can’t. But here we are in 2025, with a president who proudly spreads this hateful poison about one particular nationality. It’s pure bigotry. Shameful, ugly, and un-American.”