Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Sunday that the Trump administration is putting national security first by halting all asylum claims. The pause is necessary to clean up the security “chaos” left behind by the previous administration. This decisive action follows the tragic shooting of two National Guard members by an alleged Afghan national.
Noem confirmed that the administration has frozen all such cases to vet every applicant under tough new standards. She said the President is “absolutely determined to stop all processes at this point in time from third world countries.”
The administration argues this pause is essential because many nations cannot provide reliable information on their citizens. Noem said, “These third world countries don't have stable governments. They can't tell us who these people are.”
She added that this lack of vetting compromised security and fueled abuse of the asylum program, arguing that the foreign nations’ failures are the “consequence of what we are seeing unfold with the violence on our streets.” Noem placed the blame squarely on years of lax enforcement under the Biden administration.
The pause will not end until two major security goals are met. First, the administration must deal with the massive backlog of cases. Noem said, “Joe Biden left us with a backlog of 1.5 million asylum cases.”
She also emphasized that every person in the system must meet the new criteria. Noem said that all applicants who are here "need to be vetted under our standards."
The restart won’t happen until the system is fully reinforced and secure. Noem said anyone who does not meet the new criteria “should be removed immediately” and that claims will only resume “until we are sure that there will be someone who truly deserves the program.”