Trump pushes for ‘reverse migration’ as he seeks to widen crackdown
The White House wants to freeze migration from poorer countries and expand restrictions on nations it deems “high risk”.
President Trump is pushing for an intensified “reverse migration" agenda across his administration, seeking to broaden a crackdown on millions of immigrants from poorer countries in the U.S. following the killing of a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard.
Trump and top aides have made clear in recent days they are seeking to remove many legal immigrants who were born in countries the White House deems “high risk," in addition to those who are in the country illegally.
“Even as we have progressed technologically, Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many. I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover," Trump wrote on Truth Social, hours after he had announced the death Thursday of U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom in a Thanksgiving call to members of the military.
Beckstrom and another member of the West Virginia National Guard were shot Wednesday in Washington, D.C. Federal prosecutors said they plan to charge Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who came to the U.S. in 2021 following the U.S. withdrawal from Kabul, with first-degree murder.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,“ Trump wrote on social media.
Top administration officials were quick to echo his call. “The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear: Remigration now," the Department of Homeland Security posted on social media Friday morning.
The statements are some of Trump’s broadest pronouncements on his immigration goals and focus in either of his presidential terms. They were made after his advisers had spent recent weeks preparing to expand its crackdown on legal immigration, focusing particularly on people from primarily Muslim countries.
Then came the shooting. By Thursday, top officials had set at least three specific actions framed as a response.
The Department of Homeland Security said it had immediately and indefinitely stopped processing all immigration requests relating to people from Afghanistan, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols."
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services director Joe Edlow said the administration will also expand existing sweeping restrictions around 19 countries it deems “high risk," meaning that anyone in the U.S. from those countries who applies for a green card will now most likely be denied.
Since June, people from those countries had been largely prevented from traveling to the United States. The administration had banned any entry by citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Citizens of another seven countries were blocked from permanently immigrating to the U.S., or for applying for tourist or student visas.
As of Thursday, coming from any of those countries will be considered a “significantly negative factor" affecting a green-card application, similar to having committed a crime. “American lives come first," said Edlow, in announcing the new guidance for USCIS officers.
Days before the shooting, DHS had internally launched a similar review of all refugee cases approved during the Biden administration, according to a person familiar with the matter.
That review separately will reopen the immigration cases of hundreds of thousands of refugees who faced extensive vetting abroad before they were allowed to move to the U.S., meaning they could lose permanent legal status they had already been granted.
Write to Louise Radnofsky at louise.radnofsky@wsj.com and Michelle Hackman at michelle.hackman@wsj.com
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