Nigeria Excluded as US Launches Green Card Review for 19 Nations
The United States has announced plans to re-examine all green cards issued to nationals of 19 countries as part of a broad review of immigration records, with Nigeria notably excluded from the list.
The move is part of US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigrants following the shooting of two national guard members by a suspect identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal from Afghanistan.
Joe Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced the directive in a post on X on Thursday.
“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.
“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Edlow wrote.
The 19 countries affected by the review include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
The USCIS stated that when vetting immigrants from these nations, the agency will now consider “negative, country specific factors,” including whether the country is able “to issue secure identity documents”.
Additionally, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would stop processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals pending a further review of security and vetting protocols. The decision is effective immediately.
The DHS also revealed that the administration is reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under former President Joe Biden.
Lakanwal, the suspect in the shooting, reportedly arrived in the US in 2021 under a programme that offered special immigration protections to Afghans following the withdrawal of US troops from the country. Authorities confirmed that he once worked alongside the CIA in Afghanistan.
Business leaders reject proposed beverage tax hike
Related to this topic:
