New York: In the fallout from the killing of a National Guard soldier, US President Donald Trump has threatened to take away the citizenship of those disrupting “domestic tranquility” and halt migration from ‘third-world countries’.
In an angry post on Truth Social around Thursday midnight, Trump announced his plans for sweeping changes to immigration targeting “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country”.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover” from the erosion of “national gains and living standards,” he wrote.
He did not define “third world countries”, leaving the interpretation open.
These were the latest salvos in his campaigns on immigration that began with him wanting to deport the estimated 12 million-plus illegal migrants, and now extends to those here legally and to citizens.
There is a cultural element to Trump’s plan as his criteria for removing citizenship includes being “non-compatible with Western Civilisation”.
His plans that might run counter to immigration and other laws enacted by Congress also included taking away welfare and other government benefits from non-citizens, which would cover Green Card-holders.
Earlier, immigration services head Joseph Edlow said that under Trump’s orders, he has “directed a full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern”.
A list issued by Trump in June of “countries of concern” has 19 countries, including Afghanistan, the country of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the alleged shooter of the two National Guard soldiers Wednesday near the White House.
One of them, Sarah Beckstrom, died Thursday while the nation was celebrating Thanksgiving Day, and the other is in a critical condition in a hospital.
Lakanwal, who had worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan, was brought to the US in a programme to protect those who helped Americans as the Taliban was sweeping through Afghanistan.
Trump said in his post that he planned to “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilisation”.
‘Denaturalisation’ is a process for stripping the citizenship of immigrants who had become American citizens.
“These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorised and illegal Autopen approval process,” he wrote, referring to allegations that some orders by his predecessor Joe Biden were signed not by him personally but by using the automated device that mimicked his signature.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” he declared.
On the other hand, Trump has also supported the migration of skilled persons to the US, defending, for example, the H1B visa programme for professionals as necessary for America’s defence and industries.
But he also put limitations on the H1B programme, requiring sponsors to pay a $100,000 for bringing anyone from abroad (but it does not apply to those already here).
While Trump has not defined “third world” — often used derogatorily — it sometimes covers all developing countries across a wide range of development levels.
The United Nations criteria puts 124 countries in the developing nations category, the International Monetary Fund 152 countries, and both cover most of the world.
Trump has questioned the developing countries categorisation, asserting that China should not be on it.
Trump used questionable generalisations in a post that followed to make the case for cutting off benefits to non-citizens and for deportations.
“The official United States’ foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels,” he wrote.
Trump has blamed Biden for letting in people in those categories when his administration had a virtual open border policy, allowing millions to stream in and creating an election campaign for Trump last year.
In reality, most immigrants are not on welfare, and the men are working at a higher percentage rate than native-born American men — 77.3 per cent to 65.9 per cent — and the rate for women immigrants was less than two per cent of their native-born counterparts, according to the government’s Bureau of Labour Statistics (BLS).
Trump asserted that a “migrant earning $30,000 (per year) with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family”.
While Trump presents that as the norm, many immigrants earn several times that figure, and pay more in taxes.
According to the BLS, the median weekly earnings of individual foreign-born full-time wage and salary workers were $1,001 — giving them an annual income of more than $50,000 — compared with $1,190 weekly for their native-born Americans.
Indian immigrants, for example, have median household incomes of $156,000, compared to $75,000 for all American households, and only six per cent from India are at the poverty level, according to Pew Research institution.
Asian immigrants as a whole had median household income of $105,000, Pew reported in May.
Trump’s administration had issued orders last month to end food assistance to some categories of people living here lawfully like refugees and those granted asylum.
That is being challenged in a federal court by Attorneys General from 21 Democrat-run states.
Besides Afghanistan, the countries of concern for added vetting are Burma, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
