Following the National Guard shooting, where an Afghan national killed U.S Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, immigration applications were paused from countries placed on a new travel ban list. The countries affected by the immigration pause include Haiti, Afghanistan, Chad, Sudan, Somalia, Burundi, Cuba, Yemen, Sierra Leone, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, Equatorial Guinea, Republic of the Congo, Burma (Myanmar), Iran, Libya, Eritrea, Laos and Togo.
The National Guard shooting on Nov. 26 was carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal. The other victim in the shooting is currently in critical condition. The countries listed on the ban, which include Lakanwal’s native Afghanistan, were deemed as “countries of concern.”
In response to the shooting, President Donald Trump said on Truth Social that “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
When asked if he thought all Afghans were to blame for the shooting by a reporter, the president responded with “No, but there’s a lot of problems with Afghans.”
Director of U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Joseph Edlow spoke on the issue as well, posting on social media that his current job is “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
Lisa Johnson, coordinator of global education, provided her thoughts about the issue and how it could affect Keene going forward.
“Keene, as the city, I would imagine [would be affected],” Johnson said. “My understanding is that there are individuals from some of the countries that the ban is impacting that are likely currently in the asylum process. But for Keene State, maybe.”
“We don’t always know all of the statuses of the students who are not U.S citizens but also don’t have passports. There’s lots of other statuses students can have studying here. And some of the students may be from the countries within the ban,” Johnson added.
Johnson also provided why she believes certain countries were specifically targeted by the new travel ban.
“It appears as if the current administration tends to take an ‘all or nothing’ approach and so, instead of singling out one individual country, such as Afghanistan, the administration has decided to group all of the countries together,” Johnson said.
When asked if she thinks the ban could be lifted shortly or if it could get worse, Johnson said it could be “either or” and “the reason that the ban was put into place was because the [Trump] administration wanted to review the process by which asylum is considered and or approved.”
Johnson reflected on whether the travel ban could affect international students’ ability to come to Keene to study.
“Well, certainly if they are from any of these countries,” Johnson said. “It absolutely could, and then if it expands to incorporate more countries.”
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