Trump Announces 'Permanent Pause' on Immigration from 'Third World Countries' Using Racist Terminology

On Thanksgiving Day, November 28, 2025, President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social his intention to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries” in response to the National Guard shooting two days earlier. The announcement, using terminology widely considered outdated and racist by international institutions and scholars, represented the most sweeping immigration ban in modern American history. Trump’s post declared: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” adding that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.” The statement threatened to revoke citizenship from naturalized migrants deemed to “undermine domestic tranquility” and deport foreign nationals considered “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

The announcement provided no definition of which countries qualified as “Third World,” though administration officials identified 19 “high-risk” nations for green card review, including Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Eritrea, Libya, Venezuela, Cuba, Haiti, and others across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. A June 2025 White House proclamation had already placed travel bans on 12 countries with partial restrictions on 7 others. The Department of Homeland Security began preparing executive orders to implement the pause across multiple immigration pathways: refugee resettlement programs, family reunification visas, diversity visa lottery, and Temporary Protected Status extensions. USCIS Director Joseph Edlow announced an immediate halt to all asylum decisions, stating officers should “not enter any decision information for affirmative cases” until enhanced vetting procedures could be implemented.

Civil rights organizations immediately condemned the terminology and sweeping nature of the ban. The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated: “Using this horrific attack as an excuse to smear and punish every Afghan, every refugee, or every immigrant rips at something very basic in our Constitution and many faiths: the idea that guilt is personal, not inherited or collective.” Scholars noted that “Third World” terminology has been abandoned for decades by international institutions including the World Bank, which ceased using the term years ago. Dr. Ngozi Erondu of Georgetown University explained the term’s problematic nature: “I think it’s a very antiquated and offensive term” that “connotes hierarchy and makes assumptions about people’s character and worth based on geography.” The designation originated during the 1950s Cold War to describe nations aligned with neither Western capitalism nor Soviet communism, a context that no longer exists.

International reaction was swift and critical. Jeremy Laurence, spokesperson for the UN human rights office, emphasized that asylum seekers “are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process.” Civil rights groups filed lawsuits in California and New York arguing the blanket designation violates equal protection guarantees. The policy threatened to affect over 100 nations and millions of potential immigrants, including those seeking family reunification with U.S. citizens, diversity visa lottery winners, and refugees from countries where individuals had assisted U.S. military operations. The announcement represented a fundamental shift in American immigration policy toward explicitly racialized exclusion, using a single isolated incident to justify collective punishment of entire populations based on geography and perceived racial characteristics rather than individual merit or security assessments.