WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday announced plans to impose a sweeping and indefinite halt on migration from what he called “Third World Countries,” linking the move to a deadly attack near the White House that he blamed on failures in Biden-era immigration vetting.
Speaking on Truth Social, Trump did not specify which countries were included in the proposal — nor did he clarify what he meant by a “permanent pause.” But he said the restrictions would apply even to immigration cases approved during former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” Trump said, adding he would terminate “millions of Biden illegal admissions” and remove “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
Trump Calls for “Reverse Migration” and Denaturalisation Powers
Trump outlined additional measures, including eliminating federal benefits for all non-citizens, denaturalising migrants who “undermine domestic tranquility,” and deporting those deemed security risks, public charges, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.”
The White House and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
The remarks marked Trump’s most sweeping immigration proposal to date and appeared to widen the administration’s review of asylum cases and Green Card approvals. Homeland Security officials confirmed earlier this week that Trump had ordered a full audit of Biden-era asylum grants and visa issuances for citizens from 19 countries.
Shooting Near White House Fuels Political Firestorm
Trump’s announcement came hours after the death of a National Guard member, who investigators say was ambushed and fatally shot near the White House by a 29-year-old Afghan national, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
According to documents reviewed by Reuters, Lakanwal entered the United States in 2021 under Biden’s Afghan resettlement program, which was created following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s takeover. He was granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration.
Despite Lakanwal being in the country legally, Trump seized on the attack to intensify his push for immigration restrictions, arguing that legality is “not the real issue.”
USCIS Halts Afghan Immigration Processing
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services paused all processing of Afghan immigration requests indefinitely, further escalating uncertainty for thousands of Afghan applicants awaiting decisions on visas, asylum, or resettlement.
In a separate post, Trump argued that “hundreds of thousands” of Afghans were admitted to the U.S. “unvetted and unchecked” during the 2021 evacuation — a claim experts dispute but one that continues to resonate with his political base.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump wrote.
The incident is expected to reverberate throughout the 2026 election cycle, giving Trump and Republican allies new momentum to expand their hard-line immigration agenda.
