US halts all asylum claim decisions in wake of National Guard shooting

BBC:

The Trump administration is halting all asylum decisions in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington DC, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Joseph Edlow has said.

On Friday, in a post on X, Edlow said the pause would be in place “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”.

The announcement comes hours after President Donald Trump pledged to “permanently pause migration” to the US from all “third world countries”.

On Thursday, Trump announced that a US National Guard member had died from her injuries after Wednesday’s shooting, for which an Afghan national has been blamed.

Officers at the USCIS, a branch of the Department of Homeland Security, were instructed to refrain from approving, denying or closing asylum applications received by the agency for all nationalities, according to reporting by CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

According to guidance seen by CBS, officers could continue to work asylum application and review cases up to the point of making a decision.

“Once you’ve reached decision entry, stop and hold,” the directive said.

There are still few details available about both Friday’s directive and Trump’s earlier remarks.

Trump did not name which countries might be affected by his plan. Such a move could face legal challenges and has already prompted pushback from UN agencies.

Both announcements followed Wednesday’s fatal attack, and represent a further toughening of the Trump administration’s stance towards migrants during his second presidency.

Among other moves, Trump has sought to enact mass deportations of migrants who entered the US illegally, to drastically cut the annual number of refugee admissions, and to end automatic citizenship rights that currently apply to nearly anyone born on US territory.