The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announces on Nov. 27, 2025: "In the wake of the shooting of two National Guard service members in Washington, D.C., Wednesday by an Afghan national, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services issued new guidance allowing for negative, country-specific factors to be considered when vetting aliens from 19 high-risk countries. This guidance comes after the Trump administration halted refugee resettlement from Afghanistan and the entry of Afghan nationals in its first year of office."

Federal immigration officials are reexamining green cards issued to people from 19 countries considered “high-risk” at President Donald Trump’s direction.

The decision, announced Nov. 27 by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, comes in light of the deadly shooting of two National Guard members by a suspected gunman who is an Afghan national.

“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said on X.

USCIS said it issued new guidance for “negative, country specific factors” to be considered when vetting people from 19 countries.

In other words, the government could try to remove legal status of people with green cards from those countries for reasons related to their country of origin rather than anything they personally have done.

Andrew Selee, president of the Migration Policy Institute, said the agency guidance appears ambiguous on how it will make those determinations other than that USCIS officials is getting more discretion.

While details are forthcoming, and legal challenges are likely, here’s what to know on the guidance.

Which countries are included?

The new guidance applies to immigrants from Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

These countries were previously listed in Trump’s June 4 proclamation seeking to restrict entry of people from them.

The Trump administration had previously halted Afghan refugee settlement and travel on the president’s first day in office, according to Tricia McLaughlin, secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. The new USCIS announcement referred to “the status of those *previously* brought into the U.S.,” she said in an X post, meaning those already here would face additional scrutiny.

When does the policy go into effect?

USCIS’ Policy Alert says it took effect immediately.

How is the Trump administration conducting this review?

The changes appear to now take a harder look at people's origin countries to justify removal from the United States.

Trump’s past proclamation, cited by the USCIS guidance, included considering activities of terrorist groups, rates of nationalities overstaying their visas in the United States, and whether a country can issue secure identity documents.

Who’s affected?

Anyone from the affected countries who’s applying for permanent residency and anyone with existing green cards from the 19 nations.

The USCIS Policy Alert says it will consider "relevant country-specific facts and circumstances." It applies to people applying for certain adjustments of status, like for a green card, as well as extending stays or changing status for nonimmigrants, which is typically people in the country on a temporary basis.

What are the possible outcomes?

Officials could try to remove someone from the country.

USCIS says the change will allow its officers to better determine whether a person is a “threat to public safety and national security.”

But, Selee said, it would be difficult for the government to remove people with permanent residency status unless officials can prove to an immigration judge that they pose a national security threat. The administration has tried to remove pro-Palestinian student activists on those grounds, resulting in legal fights.

Courts have given more leeway in determining who gets legal status in the country in the first place, but tend to be more strict on stripping that status away.

This may signal that people looking at permanent residency in the future may be more affected than those already with green cards.

Is it going to face legal challenges?

Almost certainly.

USCIS based its policy on a section of the Immigration and Nationality Act that gives the president powers to suspend or restrict the entry of "all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants" into the United States by proclamation if their entry would be detrimental to national interests.

The provision, while broad, doesn’t grant the president total power, according to the American Immigration Council. The Trump administration faced lawsuits using the same provision to impose a “Muslim ban” in his first term. The ban was overturned before Trump issued a third, narrowed executive order that the Supreme Court upheld.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump ordered a green card review after DC shooting. What it means.

Reporting by Eduardo Cuevas and Carlie Procell, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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