Applications for citizenship and green cards from 19 nations are suspended in the United States

Following the shooting of two citizen Guard soldiers by an Afghan citizen, the Department of Homeland Security is tightening its regulations on the processing of immigration applications.In a letter on Tuesday, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS, announced that it will stop examining any pending applications for citizenship, green cards, or asylum from applicants from 19 nations that were previously prohibited from entering the country.

Following a firebombing incident in Colorado in June, President Trump declared a travel ban against twelve nations and partial restrictions against seven more. In addition, the citizenship and immigration agency intends to reexamine and re-interview immigrants from these nations, possibly as far back as 2021, in light of increased scrutiny of those who have complied with the legal requirements to apply for permanent residence in the United States.

Citizens of Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are prohibited from traveling, and citizens of Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela are subject to limited access. The delays in ongoing applications and the examination of previously accepted ones affect migrants from all 19 countries.

Last month, USCIS, a component of DHS, had already declared that it would re-review the status of everyone who had been allowed into the U.S. as a refugee under the Biden administration, basically reopening their cases. According to a different document received on November 21 and examined by NPR, some individuals would require additional interviews and risk losing their legal refugee status.

Source: NPR