Trump Orders ‘Permanent Pause’ on ‘Third World’ Migration: Who’s on the List So Far?

In the wake of the Washington, D.C. shooting on Thursday, US President Donald Trump said on Friday that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World countries” to “allow the US system to fully recover” from what he described as “illegal admissions” of millions of Afghan refugees under the Joe Biden administration.

He has not yet outlined which countries would fall under this label, but his administration recently began reviewing the immigration status of every permanent resident, or Green Card holder, from Afghanistan and 18 other countries.

The announcement followed a shooting near the White House on Thursday that killed at least two US National Guard members. The shooter, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme created after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which led to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover.

List of Countries Under Review

Following the attack, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said it would review the immigration status of every Green Card holder from 19 countries.

“I have directed a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” Joseph Edlow, director of USCIS, wrote on X.

The countries were drawn from an earlier executive order signed by Trump in June, which classified 19 nations as “countries of identified concern”.

That order fully restricted or limited the entry of nationals of the following 12 countries: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

It also imposed partial restrictions on nationals of these seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

On Truth Social, Trump said the migration pause would “allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States… end all federal benefits and subsidies to non-citizens… denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or not compatible with Western civilisation.”

Earlier, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said, “Effective immediately, I am issuing new policy guidance that authorises USCIS officers to consider country-specific factors as significant negative factors when reviewing immigration requests. American lives come first.”

The updated guidance includes consideration of factors such as a country’s ability to issue secure identity documents and aims to strengthen the implementation of Presidential Proclamation 10949, which restricts the entry of foreign nationals deemed potential security or public-safety threats. The new rules apply to all requests pending or filed on or after 27 November 2025.

Trump’s reference to “Third World countries” remains unclear, as the term, first used during the World War II, has no official standing in modern international policy. It is often used informally to refer to "developing, least-developed, or low-income nations".