U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters earlier than boarding Air Pressure One on November 16, 2025 at Palm Seashore Worldwide Airport in West Palm Seashore, Florida.
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Roberto Schmidt/Getty Pictures
After an Afghan nationwide was named as being behind a taking pictures in Washington, D.C., that left one member of the Nationwide Guard useless and one other in vital situation, President Trump vowed a pointy crackdown on immigration from international locations he described as “third world.”
Writing on social media on Thursday evening, Trump railed in opposition to immigrants from impoverished nations, accusing them of being a burden on the nation’s welfare system and “preying” on natural-born residents.
“I’ll completely pause migration from all Third World International locations to permit the U.S. system to totally get better,” he wrote on Reality Social.
“Solely REVERSE MIGRATION can absolutely treatment this example.”
The Trump administration is already deporting some immigrants, both to their international locations of origin or to 3rd international locations, lots of that are paid to obtain them. Venezuelans had been deported from the U.S. to El Salvador, a lot of migrants had been despatched to Eswatini and South Sudan, and Rwanda has agreed to simply accept deportees.
Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Providers, wrote on social media that he had been directed to conduct “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of each Inexperienced Card for each alien from each nation of concern.”
Edlow didn’t say which international locations this may entail, and the USCIS didn’t reply to an NPR request for remark. However a June White Home proclamation positioned a journey ban on 12 international locations of concern.
A makeshift memorial of flowers and American flags stands outdoors the Farragut West Metro station on Nov. 28, 2025 in Washington, DC.
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These included many African nations affected by battle and terrorism equivalent to Chad, Sudan and Somalia — in addition to different international locations, like Afghanistan. One other 7 international locations had been slapped with partial restrictions.
In a assertion to CNN, the Division of Homeland Safety mentioned it had already halted all immigration requests stemming from Afghanistan and was within the strategy of reviewing “all” asylum circumstances accepted underneath former President Biden.
The division didn’t reply to an NPR request for remark.
Historical past of anti-immigrant sentiment
The president’s newest rally in opposition to immigration was sparked by the revelation that the alleged shooter was recognized as Rahmanullah Lakanwal — a 29-year-old Afghan nationwide who had labored with the CIA to battle the Taliban in his native nation and was admitted into the USA in 2021 because of his service. In a Thanksgiving Day name with servicemembers, Trump described the taking pictures as a terrorist assault and the shooter as a “savage monster.”
He blamed the Biden administration for Lakanwal’s entry to the USA and for a normal failure of the immigration system.
“For probably the most half, we do not need ’em,” he mentioned, referring broadly to immigration seekers as gang members, mentally unwell and beforehand incarcerated.
Trump ran each profitable White Home campaigns on a pledge to crack down on unlawful immigration, concentrating on at varied factors migrants from international locations together with Mexico and Somalia.
Chatting with reporters on Thursday after the Thanksgiving name, Trump widened his assault to focus not simply on the alleged shooter however to campaign in opposition to a lot of immigration typically.
When requested by a reporter about the truth that as a former CIA asset, Lakanwal had been vetted, Trump repeatedly berated the reporter as “silly.”
Folks detained earlier within the day are taken to a car parking zone on the far north facet of the town earlier than being transferred to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility on Oct. 31, 2025, in Chicago, Ailing.
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Jamie Kelter Davis/Getty Pictures
Requested by one other reporter whether or not he blamed all Afghans for the alleged actions of 1, Trump mentioned: “No, however there’s numerous issues with Afghans.”
Trump then turned his consideration to immigrants from Somalia, who he has repeatedly accused of being gang-affiliated and “taking on” Minnesota — dwelling to the nation’s largest Somali group.
Questioned about what Somalis needed to do with the D.C. taking pictures, Trump mentioned: “Nothing.” However, he added, “Somalians have prompted numerous bother.” .
Afterward social media, he described “Somalian gangs” in Minnesota as “roving the streets searching for ‘prey’ as our great folks keep locked of their flats and homes hoping in opposition to hope that they are going to be left alone.”
Officers for the United Nations on Friday criticized Trump’s name for sweeping halts to immigration seekers.
“They’re entitled to safety underneath worldwide legislation, and that needs to be given due course of,” U.N. human rights workplace spokesperson Jeremy Laurence advised reporters in Geneva.
