Kristi Noem, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement on social media on Monday that she recommended that President Trump enact “a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies.”
It was not immediately clear what countries could be targeted by such a ban, or how broad it would be, and Mr. Trump would have the final say. The president reposted Ms. Noem’s statement on his own social media account later Monday night, without offering any comment.
Ms. Noem’s statement, which demonized immigrants as “foreign invaders,” came amid a wider crackdown on legal pathways of immigration after the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., by a gunman identified by the authorities as an Afghan national last week. Afghanistan is already on a list of 12 countries, primarily in Africa and the Middle East, that Mr. Trump instituted a travel ban on in June.
Late on Thanksgiving Day, Mr. Trump, who has used derogatory language to describe immigrants since the shooting, had said on social media that he intended to “permanently pause migration from all third world countries.” He also spoke of “reverse migration,” floating the possibility of stripping naturalized American citizens of their citizenship and vowing to deport all immigrants that he saw as “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
The White House referred questions on the travel ban to the Department of Homeland Security. A Department of Homeland Security spokesman said that the agency would “be announcing the list soon.” The State Department is the federal agency that typically sets entry requirements for immigrants and foreign travelers, but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Within days of the shooting of two Guard members less than half a mile from the White House, the Trump administration had halted the asylum process for all migrants in the United States, begun a review of green cards for people from 19 countries, mostly from the Middle East or Africa, and barred Afghans from entering the country.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that he intended to pause asylum for “a long time” because “we don’t want those people.”
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting.
Chris Cameron is a Times reporter covering Washington, focusing on breaking news and the Trump administration.
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