Updated December 3, 2025 at 12:12 PM EST
The Department of Homeland Security is further clamping down on processing immigration applications after two National Guard members were shot by an Afghan national.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, in a memo on Tuesday said it would pause reviewing all pending applications for green cards, citizenship, or asylum from immigrants from 19 countries listed in a previous travel ban.
President Trump in June announced the travel ban against 12 countries, and partial restrictions against seven others, after a firebombing attack in Colorado.
The citizenship and immigration agency also plans to re-review and re-interview immigrants from these countries, potentially going as far back as 2021, amid sharper scrutiny of those who have followed the legal steps to seek permanent status in the U.S.
"The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right," a DHS spokesperson told NPR in a statement. "We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern."
The travel ban applies to citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen and added restricted access applied to people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Migrants from all 19 countries are impacted by the pauses of pending applications and review of previously approved ones.
Prior restrictions on refugees
Last month, USCIS, a branch of DHS, had previously announced that it would re-review the status of everyone who had been admitted into the U.S. as a refugee under the Biden administration, essentially reopening those cases.
A separate memo sent on Nov. 21, and reviewed by NPR, said that some people may need to be interviewed again and could end up losing their legal refugee status.
The latest memo marks an escalation of the immigration crackdown after the attack in Washington, D.C. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Afghan national, was charged with first-degree murder for allegedly shooting two National Guard members near the White House just before Thanksgiving. He had been granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration, after first coming to the U.S. on a temporary humanitarian parole program under the Biden administration.
In an interview with NBC's Meet the Press, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the agency would pause processing all asylum applications indefinitely while it works through a million-case backlog.
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