Trump threatens to ‘permanently pause’ migration to U.S. from ‘third-world’ countries

In the aftermath of the shooting of two National Guards in Washington, D.C., U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently pause” all migration from what he called “third-world countries” and to end millions of “illegal admissions” to the country.

In a series of lengthy Truth Social posts that came shortly after Trump announced the death of 20-year-old National Guard troop Sarah Beckstrom, the president blamed the millions of migrants residing in the U.S. for “eroding” the living standards of Americans.

A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World,…

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 28, 2025

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(Andrew Wolfe, 24, another member of the National Guard, remains in the hospital in critical condition.)

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Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan war, is facing first-degree murder charges in connection with Wednesday’s shooting. The suspect arrived in the U.S. as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

View image in full screen FILE – A protester confronts a line of U.S. National Guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025, following an immigration raid protest a day earlier. AP Photo / Eric Thayer, File

Trump’s latest posts threaten a new wave of severe consequences for people his administration deems illegal, including to “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”

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The president also vowed to “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and “deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization,” before claiming, without evidence, that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota.”

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“Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone,” he wrote.

There were roughly 80,000 Somali nationals living in Minnesota in 2023, according to Minnesota Compass, out of a population of nearly 6 million people in the state.

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Trump’s remarks about Somalis in Minnesota come after several instances of fraud were uncovered in state programs, including by Somali residents.

Republican members of Congress highlighted those claims in a letter last week seeking an investigation into the funnelling of “taxpayer dollars into the hands of the Al-Shabaab terrorist network in Somalia.”

Khalid Omar, an organizer with the interfaith group ISAIAH, said to the Guardian: “Collective punishment is wrong and racist, and using the actions of a few people to attack an entire community is un-American.”

“If anyone, regardless of their race, religion, or ethnicity, committed fraud, they should be held accountable under the law as individuals,” he continued.

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Trump’s remarks also drew criticism from UN agencies.

Asked to respond to Trump’s remarks about immigrants, UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing: “They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process.”

UN refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun echoed those sentiments.

“When people who need protection arrive in their territory, they have to have a due process of asylum. And then they have to have access to territory,” she said, adding that the overwhelming majority of refugees are law-abiding members of the host community.

Since Trump took office in January, his administration has deployed ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents to multiple American cities and have detained tens of thousands of foreign nationals.

In his recent post, Trump claimed — again, without evidence — that “most” of the 53 million foreign nationals currently living in the United States are “on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels.”

As of Nov. 16, there were 65,135 people in ICE detention, 73.6 per cent of whom have no criminal record, according to Trac Immigration.

According to the Pew Research Centre, as of June 2025, 51.9 million immigrants lived in the U.S., making up 15.4 per cent of the nation’s population.

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This number was down from January, when there were a record 53.3 million immigrants in the country.

In 2023, the most recent year with complete data, 33 million immigrants were in the U.S. workforce, including about 23 million lawful immigrants and 10 million unauthorized immigrants, the research centre says.

Unauthorized immigrants are those without full legal status, including people with temporary protection from deportation and those with various forms of legal work permits.

Among the unauthorized immigrants with some deportation protections were 2.6 million asylum applicants; 700,000 people who entered the U.S. legally after receiving parole; 700,000 victims of crime and violence; 650,000 people with Temporary Protected Status and 600,000 immigrants protected under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

In October, the Department of Homeland Security said more than two million “illegal aliens” had left the U.S., including 1.6 million who had “voluntarily self-deported” and more than 527,000 who were deported.

The department said it had made “historic strides to carry out President Trump’s promise of arresting and deporting illegal aliens who have invaded our country.”

— With files from The Associated Press and Reuters