SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is recommending a massive travel ban following the recent attack near the White House against two National Guard officers.
Noem made the announcement Monday in a post on X, stating: "I just met with the President… I'm recommending a full travel ban on every country flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies. We don't want them — not one."
The government now plans to be stricter with its immigration vetting, pause asylum seeker applications, and potentially add 30 more countries to the U.S. travel-ban list.
While the countries in Noem's post have not been identified yet, the U.S. has already banned 19 countries, including Afghanistan, where last week's suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal came from.
The State Department is also pausing visa approvals for Afghan passport holders. U.S. immigration officials say they're halting all asylum cases and re-examining green cards from those 19 countries.
"Going back on all of these folks that have applied for asylum, people that would be traveling to this country and looking at more information, their social media platforms they may have visited, the communications that they have, biometric information," Noem said.
President Trump has also said in a Truth Social post that he wants to pause migration from "third-world countries permanently."
With all these moves, University of San Diego Professor of Economics Alan Gin says the U.S. would feel the most long-term impact in a decline in population growth.
"So the only reason the US population is growing is due to migration. Any stop or reduction in immigration might affect the overall population growth in the US, and it could lead to shortages in terms of workers," Gin said.
