The United States has reduced the maximum duration of work permits for certain categories of migrants from five years to just 18 months, the Trump administration announced on Thursday.
The move forms part of President Trump’s broader anti-migration agenda and comes in response to a recent shooting in Washington.
In the attack, two National Guard members were targeted, and one of them died. The suspected attacker, an Afghan national, entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.
The reduction of the duration of the work permit is intended to enable “frequent background checks” on foreigners working in the US, according to the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). The agency stated that the checks aimed to make sure migrants do not pose threats to public safety or promote harmful anti-US ideologies.
Following the Washington shooting, the US suspended the processing of all asylum applications.
Earlier, President Trump had announced plans to indefinitely halt immigration from “third-world countries” and called for a re-evaluation of residency permits granted to individuals from 19 "countries of concern.”
These include 10 countries in Africa: Burundi, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan and Togo.
Also on the list are Afghanistan, Iran, Laos, Myanmar, Turkmenistan and Yemen in Asia, and Cuba, Haiti and Venezuela in the Caribbean/Latin America region.
