US halts immigration applications for citizens of 19 'high-risk countries'

President Donald Trump's administration has halted immigration applications from citizens of 19 “high-risk countries”, following the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington allegedly by an Afghan refugee.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said in a memo on Tuesday that all applications for asylum or withholding of removal – regardless of the applicant's country – would undergo a review, and that benefit requests from people from countries named in the June travel ban and restricted access list would be held pending a “comprehensive re-review”.

“This order aims to safeguard US citizens from aliens who may seek to commit terrorist acts, pose threats to national security, promote hateful ideologies, or exploit immigration laws for malicious purposes,” the USCIS memo said.

In June, the Trump administration banned travel to the US by citizens of 12 countries, with the White House saying the nations posed a “very high risk” to national security. It also restricted access to citizens from seven other countries.

Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen were named in the ban, while entry by people from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela was restricted.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X said that she would aim for a ban on all countries that have “been flooding our nation with killers, leeches and entitlement junkies”. She did not name specific countries.

She added that the US would not permit the entry of “foreign invaders” who “slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars or snatch the benefits ow