The United States has halted immigration applications

The U.S. government has suspended the immigration and green card application process for citizens of 19 countries that already have travel bans and restrictions imposed on them. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) published this policy memo on its website on Tuesday. This decision comes in the wake of the recent shooting incident near the White House, where an Afghan-American opened fire on National Guard personnel. Following this incident, the Trump administration decided to overhaul immigration policies completely a move it had previously hinted at.

The countries whose immigration application processes have now been halted include: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.