The United States tightens its immigration crackdown even further
Rights — di Luigi Mastrodonato
The US administration has suspended visa applications from people coming from 19 countries. Meanwhile, raids in cities continue to press forward.
The United States tightens its immigration crackdown even further
The US administration has suspended visa applications from people coming from 19 countries. Meanwhile, raids in cities continue to press forward.
The United States has launched a new immigration crackdown. It all began on 26 November in Washington, when an Afghan man attacked two National Guard officers, killing one of them. This became the pretext for the Trump administration to authorise new federal agent raids in several American cities, as well as to radically overhaul the procedural rules governing entry and asylum in the country. In particular, immigration applications from people coming from 19 countries deemed "at risk" have been suspended, and even those already approved will be subject to review. The United States saw a decline in its migrant population in 2025, something that had not happened in 60 years. The discriminatory and repressive policies of Donald Trump have undoubtedly played a role in this reversal of trend.
Reporter questions Gregory Bovino on the streets of New Orleans.
Reporter: How many people did you detain today?
Bovine: A lot and still counting.
Reporter: How long do you plan to be here?
Bovino: That is a fantastic question. 'Till the mission is accomplished.
Reporter: How many people did you detain today?
Bovine: A lot and still counting.
Reporter: How long do you plan to be here?
Bovino: That is a fantastic question. 'Till the mission is accomplished.
Immigration from 19 countries halted
On 26 November, an Afghan man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, attacked two National Guard officers in Washington, killing one of them. The man had arrived in the United States in 2021 through a programme supporting Afghan nationals who had collaborated with US troops in the Asian country, and had been granted asylum. The attack quickly became the pretext for the Trump administration to impose yet another immigration crackdown.
The US president announced his intention to "suspend immigration from all third-world countries", accusing the previous Joe Biden administration of having allowed millions of people to enter the United States without any vetting. In light of this, he instructed the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to suspend entry applications from people originating from a list of 19 countries and to carry out a review of green cards — the permit to reside on US soil — already granted to people from those same countries. The 19 countries affected are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. The list was drawn from an earlier document signed in June by President Trump, which stressed the urgency of protecting the United States from "foreign terrorists and other threats to national security and public safety".
The assault on the Somali community
Trump's immigration crackdown targeting the 19 countries is running in parallel with a harsh verbal offensive by the president against people of Somali origin. On 2 December, during a cabinet meeting, the president declared that Somalia is a "rotten country", that he does not want people from there in the United States, and went so far as to describe people of Somali origin as "garbage". He then authorised Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to carry out raids in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area in Minnesota, specifically targeting people of Somali origin subject to deportation orders.
The Minneapolis–Saint Paul raid is not the only one to have taken place in recent days. A similar operation was launched on 3 December in New Orleans, Louisiana, with masked agents and armoured vehicles bearing no identifying markings patrolling the city, primarily targeting latinos. As noted by the authorities, "Operation Catahoula Crunch" was directed at individuals released after being arrested for minor offences and could continue for weeks. The hundreds of agents deployed have a target of approximately 5,000 arrests. Also in recent days, another ICE raid shook New York's Chinatown neighbourhood, though with an unexpected outcome. Word of mouth among residents brought hundreds of people onto the streets to oppose the operation near a series of garages frequented by street vendors. The barricades hampered and ultimately prevented the agents from carrying out their action.
Rights and freedoms denied
In 2025, the United States saw the number of immigrants present in the country fall for the first time in sixty years. As highlighted by a Pew Research Center study, the figure dropped from 53.3 million in January to 51.9 million in June, a trend that is likely to have continued throughout the second half of the year.
Contributing to this shift is the sweeping immigration crackdown put in place by the Trump administration from its very first day in office, which has involved tighter border controls, restrictions on visas and asylum applications, and dozens of targeted operations carried out in cities by the National Guard and ICE against irregular immigration — operations that have frequently turned into attacks and detentions justified solely on the basis of nationality and skin colour. Over the course of recent months, hundreds of migrants have been deported to third countries with which the United States has signed agreements, including Ghana, Djibouti, South Sudan, Uganda, eSwatini and Rwanda. Hundreds more Venezuelan nationals have been deported to prisons in El Salvador, accused of being undocumented and of belonging to organised crime networks. In reality, as independent observers have pointed out, some of these individuals were in the United States legally.
The Trump administration paused all immigration applications from 19 non-European countries reut.rs/3KFwXCd
The Trump administration's latest immigration crackdown therefore fits into an already highly repressive context — and has provoked fresh, profound criticism. The Human Rights Watch director for the United States, Tanya Greene, told The Guardian that the new measure of freezing visa applications and drawing up a blacklist of 19 countries "will destroy families, endanger people fleeing persecution, and further damage the United States' credibility on human rights". Uzra Zeya, CEO of the non-profit organisation Human Rights First, described the new measure as "outrageous and dangerous".