As part of a comprehensive examination of immigration records, the United States has announced plans to reexamine all green cards granted to citizens of 19 nations.
Following the shooting of two National Guard troops by an Afghan suspect named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, US President Donald Trump has launched a crackdown on immigration.
Joe Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), wrote in an X post on Thursday, “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
“The American people will not pay the price of the previous administration’s careless resettlement policies, and the protection of this country and the American people remains paramount.” The safety of Americans cannot be negotiated.
Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela are among the nineteen nations.
According to the USCIS, the agency will now examine “negative, country specific factors” when screening applicants from those 19 nations, including the nation’s capacity “to issue secure identity documents.”
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), all immigration requests pertaining to Afghan nationals will no longer be processed while security and vetting procedures are reviewed. The ruling takes immediate effect.
Additionally, according to the DHS, all asylum claims authorized under former President Joe Biden are being reviewed by the administration.
Lakanwal arrived in the US in 2021 as part of a program that provided Afghans with special immigration protections following the withdrawal of US forces from the country.
His previous employment with the CIA in Afghanistan has been verified by authorities.
