List of countries concerned includes Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela
The United States will reevaluate all residence visas (green cards) issued to people from 19 “concern” countries, by order of President Donald Trump, at a time when the Trump administration intensifies the immigration crackdown following the .
“At the direction of @POTUS, I have ordered a rigorous, full-scale reexamination of all Green Cards of all aliens from all countries of concern,” wrote Joe Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, on X Thursday.
Asked to provide more details, including countries considered “of concern”, USCIS referred CNN to 19 countries listed in a June report.
The 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
USCIS said in a statement Thursday that when screening immigrants from those 19 countries, the agency will now take into account “negative country-specific factors,” which include whether the country is capable of “issuing secure identity documents.”
Since authorities identified the shooting suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, the Trump administration has stepped up its efforts to restrict immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, said Thursday that the administration is also reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under former President Joe Biden.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration applications related to Afghan nationals is halted indefinitely, pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” DHS Deputy Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CNN, adding, “The Trump administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration.”
Trump said in a social media post Thursday night that his administration will work to “permanently pause migration from all Third World countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
It is unclear which countries Trump was referring to. “Third world countries,” used by some to define developing nations, have been repeatedly used by Trump as part of his anti-immigration rhetoric.
CNN has reached out to the State Department and the White House for clarification.
Trump wrote on social media that his administration will also “terminate all of Biden’s millions of illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a liquid asset to the United States, or who is incapable of loving our country.”
Trump added that he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens” and “denaturalize migrants who disrupt domestic tranquility and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, a security risk or not compatible with Western civilization.”
Lakanwal – who previously worked with the US government, including the CIA – came to the country in 2021 as part of Biden’s “” after helping the US in Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024, and the Trump administration granted it in April 2025, CNN previously reported.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Source: US Department of Justice
The Afghan Community Alliance in the United States on Thursday condemned the shooting, while also expressing concern about the impact of Lakanwal’s actions on the immigration process of other Afghan citizens.
“A single individual’s crime should not harm or obstruct the legal cases of thousands of deserving Afghans who meet all U.S. legal requirements,” the alliance argued in a statement, which called on federal agencies to process Afghan immigrants as usual, without delays or suspensions.
More than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States since the US military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, according to the State Department.
In a video address from the Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the suspected shooter to the US and argued that the attack “underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
Trump said in the comments: “We must now re-examine all aliens who have entered our country from Afghanistan under the Biden administration and we must take all necessary steps to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or does not bring benefit to our country.”
Trump also lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and uncontrolled foreigners” who entered the US during his predecessor’s administration, calling them “a risk to the very survival” of the US.
The administration’s latest move to reexamine residency visas is in line with Trump’s. A green card is a document that considers its holder a legal permanent resident of the USA. It is different from refugee and asylum programs – which the Trump administration has already sought to limit – although refugees must apply for a “green card” after a year of staying in the US.
