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Trump to ‘permanently pause’ migration from ‘third world countries’ - THE TELEGRAPH
Donald Trump said the United States would suspend migration from what he called “third world countries”, a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC.
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died and Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically injured in the ambush-style shooting just yards from the White House on Wednesday.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover,” Mr Trump wrote in a lengthy post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday evening.
Mr Trump did not identify any countries by name or explain what he meant by “third world countries.”
The US president has repeatedly expressed his fury over the targeted attack, calling it a “heinous assault” while placing blame on the Biden administration.
Authorities have charged suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old former special forces commander from Afghanistan, who came to the US in 2021 as part of a resettlement programme, over the shooting.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Mr Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens”, adding he would “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.”
Mr Trump’s plan to suspend migrants from “third world countries” comes after the US paused immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely on Wednesday.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees US immigration, said in a post on social media: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
When Kabul fell to the Taliban, Mr Lakanwal was evacuated to the United States through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era programme, arriving in Washington state on September 8 2021.
Trump announces halt on immigration from 'Third World countries'
Most of the 190,000 Afghans who arrived under the programme were allowed to enter and remain in the US for two years.
Mr Lakanwal was initially sponsored by a local faith organisation and worked low-paid jobs as his immigration case worked its way through the system.
His two-year parole expired in mid-2024, leaving him undocumented and he applied for asylum that December, claiming he feared Taliban reprisals.
After vetting, the Trump administration granted him asylum and a work permit in April this year.
Nearly 24,000 Afghan soldiers and their families were secretly offered asylum in Britain after being caught up in the most serious data breach in history.
Described as “the most expensive email in history”, it led the Government to earmark £7bn to relocate Afghan refugees to Britain over the course of five years, to protect them from possible reprisals from the Taliban.
Sex offenders, corrupt officials and people imprisoned under the US-led coalition are also among those who have been accepted for resettlement in the UK in an apparent failure of vetting procedures.
Mr Trump’s angry post, which finished by wishing Americans a happy Thanksgiving, marked an escalation in the anti-migrant policies of his second term dominated by a mass deportation campaign.
“These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations,” Mr Trump said on Thursday.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
