Trump Defends Refugee Pause, Declines To Lay Out Timeline
President Donald Trump stood by his administration’s decision to halt asylum offers from 19 designated “countries of concern,” but declined to provide a timeline for when, or if, the pause would be lifted.
Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday, the president said the United States must focus on security and stability before admitting more refugees from nations with histories of instability or hostility toward the U.S. He insisted that accepting migrants from such places has harmed the country.
“We don’t want people. We have enough problems. We don’t want those people,” Trump said. “You know why we don’t want them? Because many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
The list of countries affected by the pause includes Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
Trump argued that nations like Somalia lack stable governments, policing, or a functioning military, and “all they do is go around killing each other, then they come into our country and tell us how to run our country.”
He also pointed to Rep. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota as an example of why tougher controls were necessary. Omar has long faced accusations that she married her brother as part of an immigration scheme. Trump said that if that accusation is ever confirmed, “she should be thrown the hell out of our country.” Omar has denied the allegations.
The president first announced the asylum pause on Thanksgiving Day, adding that his administration would now focus on deporting anyone in the U.S. who is not a “net asset” to the country. He vowed to end federal benefits for noncitizens and revoke citizenship from those who undermine public safety or national security.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” Trump wrote previously, adding that his goal is to remove individuals who pose a threat or do not contribute to American society.
While Trump declined to give any timeline for reevaluating the pause, he made clear that safeguarding American communities will take priority over immigration requests from unstable or adversarial nations.