cards

Green card applications from ‘countries of concern’ will be reviewed after Afghan national named as suspect in shooting of National Guard members.

United States President Donald Trump said he plans to suspend immigration from “all Third World countries”, the day after an Afghan national was named as a suspect in the shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, DC.

Trump’s announcement marks the latest in a series of escalating restrictions on immigration to the US, after he earlier ordered the US government to re-examine all green card applications from 19 “countries of concern”, in the wake of the Washington, DC, shooting.

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.

While he did not define the term “Third World,” the phrase usually refers to developing countries in the Global South.

Trump also said that he will “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”.

He added that all federal benefits and subsidies to “noncitizens” will end, and he will “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization”.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said earlier on Thursday that, “at the direction” of President Trump, he had ordered “a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern”.

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Edlow said.

Edlow did not elaborate on which countries’ applicants would be reviewed, but his office directed The Associated Press (AP) news agency to a June 4 presidential proclamation restricting citizens of 19 countries from entering the US. The list includes Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Myanmar, Venezuela and Yemen.

Citizenship and Immigration Services had earlier announced that it would indefinitely suspend all Afghan immigration requests “pending further review of security and vetting protocols”.

The restrictions on immigrants in the US come as Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia in Washington, DC, identified the suspect in the shooting of the National Guard members as Rahmanaullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked with US forces in Afghanistan.

Lakanwal came to the US under a programme known as “Operation Allies Welcome” following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, according to Pirro. She said federal authorities, including the FBI, would be reviewing his immigration history and the vetting process.

The Trump administration has already taken aggressive measures to restrict immigration to the US. In October, it announced it would accept only 7,500 refugees in 2026 – the lowest number since 1980.

The US government is also in the midst of a major review of recent US refugee arrivals, according to a memo signed by Edlow and obtained by the AP on Monday.

The memo orders the review of the approximately 200,000 refugees admitted to the US under the administration of President Joe Biden, according to the AP.

It also suspends green card applications from refugees who came to the US during that period.

Kevin Spacey is reportedly homeless after facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment and assault.

The “House of Cards” actor told the Telegraph in an interview published Wednesday that he is currently “living in hotels [and] living in Airbnbs” near wherever he can find work because his current financial situation is “not great.”

“I literally have no home, that’s what I’m attempting to explain,” Spacey said.

The actor, who used to live in Baltimore, said he lost his house “because the costs over these last seven years have been astronomical.”

“I’ve had very little coming in and everything going out,” Spacey said. But “[y]ou get through it. In weird ways, I feel I’m back to where I first started, which is I just went where the work was. Everything is in storage, and I hope at some point, if things continue to improve, that I’ll be able to decide where I want to settle down again.”

Spacey swiftly fell from grace in 2017 after actor Anthony Rapp alleged that the two-time Oscar winner had made sexual advances toward him in the 1980s when he was a teenager. Additional accusations of sexual misconduct or assault by more than 30 men followed. Spacey has denied all allegations, and the various lawsuits that stemmed from them ended up being dropped, dismissed, or resulted in his acquittal.

Spacey previously addressed his mounting debt in a 2024 interview with Piers Morgan. After admitting that he was unable to pay the bills that he owed, he said he had considered filing for bankruptcy but had so far “managed to sort of dodge it.” He also revealed that his Baltimore home was facing foreclosure and would be “sold at auction.”

The actor has since attempted to make a comeback. In 2021, he landed his first acting job since the misconduct allegations: an Italian indie movie. He has appeared in other projects, including on stage.

While Spacey has yet to return to Hollywood, he remains hopeful about his future.

“We are in touch with some extremely powerful people who want to put me back to work,” he told the Telegraph. “And that will happen in its right time. But I will also say what I think the industry seems to be waiting for is to be given permission — by someone who is in some position of enormous respect and authority.”