The United States has announced a comprehensive review of all green cards issued to nationals of 19 countries designated as “countries of concern”.
The development followed the recent shooting of two National Guard personnel in Washington, D.C.
The directive was ordered by U.S. President Donald Trump,
He mandated a full-scale reassessment of green cards previously issued to citizens of the affected nations.
Joe Edlow, Director of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), confirmed the development in a post on X,.
He stated that he had ordered a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” in line with the president’s instruction.
The affected countries, earlier listed in a June presidential proclamation, include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea.
Others are Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
USCIS said the assessment would consider “negative, country-specific factors,” including each nation’s ability to produce secure identity documents.
The review follows the identification of Rahmanullah Lakanwap.
He is an Afghan national, as the suspect in the shooting of the National Guard personnel.
The Department of Homeland Security has also disclosed plans to review asylum approvals granted during the administration of former President Joe Biden.
Nigeria was recently designated a Country of Particular Concern by the Trump administration.
It is however, exempted from the green card reassessment.
