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The Trump administration has halted all immigration purposes filed by individuals from 19 international locations, its newest transfer to limit authorized immigration pathways following the taking pictures of two Nationwide Guard members in Washington, D.C., final week, in line with inside authorities steering and a supply accustomed to the transfer.
The inner U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies steering obtained by CBS Information exhibits the company directed staff on Monday to “cease closing adjudication on all circumstances” involving people from 19 nations which can be going through restrictions below a proclamation Mr. Trump issued in June. Colloquially, that proclamation is called the journey ban.
That pause contains the completion of citizenship ceremonies for authorized U.S. everlasting residents from the checklist of 19 international locations who had been on the cusp of turning into naturalized Americans, the USCIS doc stated. It steered the suspension is an interim step whereas the administration develops additional steering on the vetting of the affected immigrants.
“This maintain contains all kind varieties and making any closing selections (approvals, denials) in addition to finishing any oath ceremonies,” the steering to USCIS places of work stated.
Mr. Trump’s June proclamation imposed a near-total restriction on the entry of individuals from Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. It additionally partially suspended the entry of vacationers and immigrants from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The brand new steering signifies that the immigration crackdown directed by Mr. Trump following final week’s taking pictures of the Nationwide Guard troopers is far broader in scope than beforehand reported. The person accused of taking pictures the 2 troopers, certainly one of whom has died, is an Afghan evacuee who entered the U.S. in September 2021, below the Biden administration, and who was granted asylum in April 2025, after Mr. Trump returned to the White Home.
The Trump administration has publicly introduced a collection of immigration restrictions because the assault, together with a pause on all asylum selections by USCIS, a categorical suspension of visa and immigration processing for Afghans and a evaluate of inexperienced card circumstances involving immigrants from the 19 nations on the journey ban.
However the administration had not publicly introduced it had additionally frozen all USCIS circumstances — not simply inexperienced card purposes — involving nationals of the 19 international locations on the checklist, together with citizenship requests. To qualify for U.S. citizenship, immigrants sometimes will need to have been authorized everlasting residents for 3 or 5 years, relying on their circumstances.
In a press release to CBS Information Tuesday, the Division of Homeland Safety, which oversees USCIS, didn’t dispute the deliberate suspension of purposes. The company stated “the Trump Administration is making each effort to make sure people turning into residents are the most effective of the most effective.”
“We’ll take no probabilities when the way forward for our nation is at stake,” DHS added. “The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration advantages granted by the Biden administration to aliens from International locations of Concern.”
A while on Tuesday, USCIS posted a memo on-line, dated Dec. 2, memorializing the immigration restrictions the administration has introduced since final week’s assault.
The memo formalized the suspension of asylum requests overseen by USCIS for all nationalities pending a “complete evaluate”; the pause on all immigration purposes filed by immigrants from the 19 international locations listed on the journey ban, no matter after they entered the U.S.; and the “re-review” of the circumstances of nationals of these international locations who arrived after former President Joe Biden took workplace in January 2021 and whose requests had been accepted.
The coverage stated everybody who falls into these classes will now be topic to a “thorough re-review course of, together with a possible interview and, if crucial, a re-interview, to completely assess all nationwide safety and public security threats together with some other associated grounds of inadmissibility or ineligibility,” together with due to suspected terrorism ties or criminality.
The coverage says the applying pause will solely be lifted when the USCIS director points one other memo. “Any requests to elevate the maintain on account of litigation or different extraordinary circumstances should obtain approval from the USCIS Director or Deputy Director,” the memo stated.
Earlier on Tuesday, CBS Information reported Trump administration officers are contemplating increasing the journey ban to embody extra international locations, in response to final week’s taking pictures. The whole checklist of countries whose nationals might face journey and immigration restrictions on nationwide safety grounds might develop to round 30, U.S. officers stated.
Immigration attorneys this week reported that a few of their purchasers’ circumstances — together with citizenship ceremonies — had been halted or canceled.
Michael Valverde, a former prime USCIS official, stated the company has beforehand enacted “tactical” pauses on sure teams of circumstances if extra vetting or procedures had been wanted. However he known as the Trump administration’s transfer “unprecedented.”
“The distinction is that is for a big group of people and in each class of immigration profit,” he stated.
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