Trump vows to ‘permanently pause’ migration from poor nations : NPR

West Palm Beach, Florida. On Thanksgiving Day, President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently halt migration” from poorer countries in a blistering late-night anti-immigrant op-ed posted on social media.

The extended rant came after the shooting Wednesday of two National Guard members deployed to patrol Washington on Trump's orders, one of whom died shortly before the president spoke to U.S. troops via video call Thursday night.

A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghan war has been charged in the shooting. The suspect emigrated as part of a program to resettle those who helped American troops after the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can completely cure this situation,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Also, THANK YOU TO EVERYONE except those who hate, steal, kill and destroy everything America stands for – you won't be here long!”

Trump's threat to halt immigration would be a major blow to a country that has long seen itself as welcoming to immigrants.

Elected on a promise to combat illegal immigration, Trump's raids and deportations have wreaked havoc on communities across the U.S. as construction sites and schools have been targeted. The prospect of more deportations could be economically damaging since foreign-born American workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The president said on Truth Social that “the majority” of foreign-born US residents “are on the dole from failed countries or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs or drug cartels” and blamed them for crimes across the country that are predominantly committed by US citizens.

The idea that immigration causes crime “continues to crumble under the weight of evidence,” according to a review of the academic literature published last year in the Annual Review of Criminology.

“With a few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels show that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increases in crime and delinquency in neighborhoods and cities in the United States,” it said.

A study by economists originally published in 2023 found that immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the United States. Immigrants have been incarcerated at lower rates for 150 years, a study has found, adding to past research that undermines Trump's claims.

But Trump appeared to have little interest in the political debate in his unusually lengthy social media post, which the White House on its Rapid Response social media account called “one of the most important messages President Trump has ever released.”

Trump said immigrants from Somalia were “totally taking over the once great state of Minnesota” as he used an outdated slur against people with intellectual disabilities to disparage the state's governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year, by calling him “severely mentally retarded.”

Trump has stepped up his rhetoric since the shooting. On Wednesday night, Trump called for a reinvestigation of all Afghan refugees who arrived under the Biden administration.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said Thursday the agency will take additional steps to screen people from 19 “high-risk” countries “to the greatest extent possible.”

Edlow did not name the countries. But in June, the administration banned travel to the United States from citizens of 12 countries and restricted access from seven other countries, citing national security concerns.