US President Donald Trump has pledged to “permanently pause” migration from what he called “third world countries,” intensifying his administration’s hardline agenda following the killing of a National Guard member in an attack near the White House.
He said the plan marked a further escalation of migration measures ordered since Wednesday’s shooting, which investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the country in 2021 under a resettlement programme, reports Reuters.
Amid Trump’s trigger-happy approach on the issue, the United States continues the deportation of Bangladeshi nationals, returning several groups in recent months, including 39 people on 28 November and earlier batches in August and September.
Trump however did not identify any nations or define “third world countries” or “permanently pause.” He said the move would apply to cases approved under former US president Joe Biden’s administration.
“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, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he wrote on Truth Social.
He added that his administration would end federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens,” “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity,” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilisation.”
Deportations of Bangladeshis continue
The US deported 39 more Bangladeshi nationals who arrived at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at around 5:30am on 28 November on a special US military flight. Airport authorities facilitated their arrival, while BRAC provided transport and emergency support.
Of the returnees, 26 were from Noakhali; two each from Cumilla, Sylhet, Feni and Lakshmipur; and one each from Chattogram, Gazipur, Dhaka, Munshiganj and Narsingdi.
BRAC’s Migration Programme sources said at least 34 of the 39 had travelled to Brazil with clearance from the Bureau of Manpower, Employment and Training before trying to enter the US illegally via Mexico.
Among the remaining five, two had travelled directly to the US and three had entered via South Africa. After they applied to remain in the United States, authorities completed the legal process and subsequently deported them.
Another 30 Bangladeshis were deported on charges of residing without valid documents, landing in Dhaka on 5 September 2025. A senior Special Branch official confirmed that 29 were men and one was a woman.
Sources said 187 Bangladeshis had so far been returned during Trump’s second term, with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs notified in advance of each case. Officials said only those who had exhausted their legal options were being deported.
Another group of 39 Bangladeshis, including one woman, arrived in Dhaka on 3 August on a C-17 US military aircraft. Some deportees had claimed they had been handcuffed throughout the flight.
According to media reports, many had sold family assets or borrowed between Tk30 lakh – Tk40 lakh to make irregular journeys through Mexico and South America. They applied for asylum in the US, but immigration officials and courts rejected their claims.
Attack near White House triggers fresh crackdown
Trump’s hardline comments on pausing migrations came after National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was killed in the ambush on Thursday. Fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life,” Trump said.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security earlier said Trump had ordered a sweeping review of asylum cases approved under Biden and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.
The alleged gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a US government file seen by Reuters.
He entered the US in a resettlement programme created by Biden after the August 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which precipitated the Afghan government’s collapse and the Taliban takeover.
In a separate post before announcing the migration freeze, Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people had entered the US “totally unvetted and unchecked” during what he called the “horrendous” Afghanistan airlift.
USCIS halted all immigration processing related to Afghan nationals indefinitely on Wednesday.
Trump later said the administration’s objective was to reduce “illegal and disruptive populations,” writing, “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.” He argued that although Lakanwal was in the country legally, the incident bolstered his call for a broader overhaul of immigration policy.
Trump has already deployed additional immigration officers to major cities to reach record deportation levels, including of long-term residents without criminal records. ICE statistics show that over two-thirds of the 53,000 people detained as of 15 November had no criminal convictions.
DHS cites ‘historic’ deportation levels
The US Department of Homeland Security announced on 27 October this year that more than 527,000 illegal aliens had been removed under Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said, “The Trump Administration is on pace to shatter historic records and deport nearly 600,000 illegal aliens by the end of President Donald Trump’s first year since returning to office.
“More than 2 million illegal aliens have left the US including 1.6 million who have voluntarily self-deported and over 527,000 deportations. This is just the beginning.”
She said DHS, ICE and CBP had “not just closed the border” but made “historic strides” in carrying out Trump’s pledge to arrest and deport illegal aliens. She added that migration through Panama’s Darién Gap had fallen “99.99%.”
McLaughlin said DHS was removing “the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens,” adding that 70% of ICE arrests involved individuals charged with or convicted of crimes in the US.
She added that illegal aliens could “take control of their departure” via the CBP Home App, with the US offering $1,000 and a free flight to self-deport — warning that those who refused “will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
