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The Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday it is slackening restrictions on asylum applications set in place after an Afghan asylee allegedly murdered one West Virginia National Guardsman and gravely wounded another in Washington last fall.
The November incident near Farragut Square led President Donald Trump to crack down on allowing asylum seekers into the country, and the administration hammered more lax Biden-era policies that allowed Afghans such as the suspect into the country.
A DHS spokesperson told Fox News Digital that the stringent screening process itself will not change, nor will restrictions on emigrants from a list of “high-risk” countries.
“Under the leadership of President Trump, maximum screening and vetting for all aliens continues unabated,” the spokesperson said.
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An ICE agent monitors hundreds of asylum seekers being processed upon entering the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building in New York City. (David Dee Delgado/Getty Images)
“USCIS (U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services) has lifted the adjudicative hold for thoroughly screened asylum seekers from non-high-risk countries. This move allows resources to focus on continued rigorous national security and public safety vetting for higher-risk cases.”
Some of the 39 countries the administration deemed lacking in the provision of adequate screening and vetting information to U.S. officials still include Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Niger, Yemen, Syria, Somalia and Sierra Leone; the latter being where two different migrants named Jalloh, accused of recent violent crimes in Virginia, hailed from.
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“Since taking office, President Trump has prioritized national security and public safety by implementing a series of executive orders and proclamations that mandate strict screening and vetting of foreign nationals seeking entry or immigration benefits,” USCIS said in a statement.
The agency said that security gaps in applications for naturalization or permanent residency exposed serious public safety risks and endangered the integrity of the U.S. immigration system.
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“[A]pplications were approved and individuals were naturalized who should not have been,” the agency said.
The latest move is expected to have limited impact on the situation, according to The Hill newspaper, but will still ease the overall restrictive environment.
