Trump Administration Immigration Crackdown Targets 19 ‘High-Risk’ Nations

Welcome back to the Global Digest, where we look at… US‘A sweeping campaign against immigration, and the lack of European Participate in Russia and Ukraine Peace talks, and India Reverse cybersecurity enforcement mandate.

“We don’t want them”

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will suspend all immigration applications for people from 19 “high-risk” countries, effective immediately. Within 90 days, USCIS must draft a priority list of immigrants to review and, if necessary, remove — including those seeking green card applications or citizenship applications.

Welcome back to the Global Digest, where we look at… US‘A sweeping campaign against immigration, and the lack of European Participate in Russia and Ukraine Peace talks, and India Reverse cybersecurity enforcement mandate.

“We don’t want them”

The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it will suspend all immigration applications for people from 19 “high-risk” countries, effective immediately. Within 90 days, USCIS must draft a priority list of immigrants to review and, if necessary, remove — including those seeking green card applications or citizenship applications.

US President Donald Trump issued a comprehensive travel ban in June, barring citizens of 12 countries (Afghanistan, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen) from entering the United States and imposing restrictions on citizens of seven other countries (Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela).

“We don’t want them,” Trump said at the time, citing national security concerns. Many of these countries have some of the poorest economies in the world and suffer from unstable governments.

At that time, no action was taken against immigrants already in the United States. But with the new mandate to be imposed on Tuesday, all migrants from these countries will now face greater scrutiny — even if they arrived before the travel ban was imposed.

The USCIS order is the latest US crackdown on immigration following last week’s shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., killing one of them. The suspect, who has pleaded not guilty to murder, was an Afghan national who entered the United States legally during the Biden administration and was granted asylum in April, during Trump’s second term. In response, Washington announced that it would prioritize the deportation of Afghan citizens who had previously been ordered to leave the country.

Also last week, USCIS said it would reconsider green card applications for people from “countries of concern,” temporarily halt all asylum applications, and suspend visas for Afghans who helped U.S. forces during the Afghanistan war. This temporary pause could affect more than 1.5 million people with pending asylum claims and another 50,000 individuals who were granted asylum during the term of former US President Joe Biden.

“Nothing is off-limits until every alien is vetted and vetted to the greatest degree possible,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said Monday.

Critics have pointed to Trump’s sweeping immigration actions as evidence of the administration’s xenophobic policies and rhetoric. On Tuesday, Trump launched a tirade against Somali immigrants, calling them “trash” and insulting US Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was born in Somalia. Somalia is one of the countries facing a complete travel ban and is affected by the USCIS order.

“When they come from hell and complain and do nothing but prostitution, we don’t want them in our country,” Trump said during a televised Cabinet meeting. “Let them go back to where they came from and fix it.”

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Rubio rejects the alliance. NATO foreign ministers met in Brussels on Wednesday to discuss threats to European security – with one notable absence. For likely the first time in 22 years, America’s top diplomat did not attend the ministerial meeting. Although NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte confirmed that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio remains “very much involved” in the proceedings, his empty chair highlighted how Washington is not counting on its European partners to negotiate a peace agreement in the Russia-Ukraine war, much to the dismay of Kiev’s European allies.

The White House surprised Europe last month by proposing a 28-point peace plan without Ukraine’s input. Since then, a flurry of American diplomacy – from the meeting in Florida with Ukrainian negotiators to talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin – has failed to include a European delegation. “For any plan to succeed, it needs the participation of Ukrainians and Europeans,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said last month.

But so far, such a plan remains elusive. Moscow said on Wednesday that it had accepted some of Washington’s proposals but remained opposed to several others. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not specify which items were under discussion, though he confirmed that high-level talks on Tuesday extended until early Wednesday morning. Previously, Russia has demanded that Ukraine cede some of its territory to Moscow, reduce its army, and pledge not to join NATO – all of which are considered red lines in Kiev’s eyes.

Technology around the face. New Delhi on Wednesday rescinded a mandate requiring all phones manufactured for users in India to pre-install a government app within 90 days. The app, called Sanchar Saathi, aims to “identify and report actions that may compromise communications cybersecurity.” But after manufacturers, including Apple and Samsung, announced on Tuesday that they would fight the order, Indian authorities were forced to change their stance.

India notified several major telecom companies of the required software update last week and officially confirmed the authorization on Monday. But the announcement quickly drew condemnation, with opposition leaders and technology companies warning of privacy concerns.

Sanchar Saathi has the ability to track a phone’s location, and digital advocacy groups have suggested it could be used for mass surveillance. Indian Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia tried to dispel these concerns, saying: “Hacking is not possible and will not happen with the Sanchar Saathi security app.” But government assurances were ultimately not enough to appease big tech companies.

“This is a welcome development,” the Internet Freedom Foundation, an Indian digital rights advocacy group, wrote on X. “For now, we should treat this as cautious optimism, not closure, until formal legal direction is published and independently confirmed.”

Crackdown in Hong Kong. The death toll from last week’s devastating fire in a high-rise apartment in Hong Kong has risen to 159 people, while 31 other people are still missing, police said on Wednesday. So far, 21 people have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter or making false statements. However, none of these individuals are government officials.

Many Hong Kong residents have taken to social media to demand greater accountability. In response, local authorities cracked down on freedom of expression, arresting at least two citizens, and Beijing’s National Security Bureau accused “hostile foreign forces” of using anti-China sentiment to exploit the tragedy. China imposed a national security law on Hong Kong in 2020 to crush political dissent.

“The city’s response to the fire has underscored Hong Kong residents’ fears that the city’s political culture is now indistinguishable from that of the mainland,” wrote Foreign Policy’s James Palmer in this week’s China Brief, noting how Hong Kong’s actions mirrored Chinese practices of censoring coverage, detaining critics, and relying on scapegoats.

Odds and Ends

In the 1983 movie OctopusJames Bond uses his spy skills to secretly swap a priceless Fabergé egg for a fake replica. Last month, a New Zealand resident took a slightly different approach. According to police on Wednesday, a 23-year-old man stole an ornate Fabergé octopus pendant from Partridge Jewelry in Oakland by eating it. The nearly 3-inch-tall golden egg — set with 183 diamonds and two sapphires — encases an 18-karat gold octopus adorned with diamonds, in homage to the classic film’s antagonist. Now, the egg is lodged in the stomach of the suspected thief. That is, until nature takes its course.