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The United States has reportedly paused immigration application processing for countries newly added to President Donald Trump’s travel ban.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the changes have not been formally announced, told CBS News that “US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has extended its suspension of immigration case processing to cover nationals of the newly added countries.”
According to the report, “Many of those affected by the pause are likely to be legal immigrants who are currently in the U.S. and are seeking to change their status or become citizens.”
Meanwhile, USCIS’s director, Joseph Edlow, seemed to mention the expansion in a statement posted on social media late on Thursday.
“USCIS is conducting a comprehensive review of anyone from anywhere who poses a threat to the U.S., including those identified in the President’s latest proclamation to restore law and order in our nation’s immigration system,” Edlow wrote.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration told USCIS to stop working on all immigration applications filed by people from 19 countries already under travel restrictions. That action followed a shooting in Washington that authorities said was carried out by an Afghan national.
This week, Trump expanded the travel ban to include 20 additional countries. Five of them, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria, now face a full ban. Another 15 countries face partial restrictions.
The pause on immigration applications has now been extended to people from all the newly added countries.
Those affected under the partial restrictions include Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Dominica, Gabon, Gambia, Malawi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Tonga, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
People from Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, Cuba, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Laos, Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Yemen and Venezuela were already affected. Laos and Sierra Leone have now been moved from partial to full bans.
