Trump seeks to expel millions of legal immigrants

President Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status.

- BY JOSH BOAK

ALEX BRANDON Associated Press

PRESIDENT Trump after speaking to troops via video from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida on Thursday.

Trump is blaming immigrants for problems as diverse as crime and housing shortages as part of what he calls “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”

His most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January came after the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members who were patrolling the streets of the nation's capital under his orders. One died and the other is in critical condition.

On Friday, his administration announced it is halting all asylum decisions. The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a post on the social platform X that this will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war, is facing charges in this week’s attack. The suspect came to the U.S. as part of a program after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan to resettle those who had helped American troops.

Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, according to #AfghanEvac, a nonprofit that works with the U.S. government to resettle Afghans here.

Trump's threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.