Trump Pauses All Asylum and Afghan SIV Processing
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt during a press briefing (Image credit X.com)
Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt links the suspension of asylum and Special Immigrant Visas to security concerns and renews push for mass deportations.
By TRH Foreign Affairs Desk
New Delhi, December 2, 2025 — The White House on Tuesday announced a sweeping pause on all asylum adjudications and Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), citing national security concerns and directly blaming immigration policies of the previous administration for a recent deadly attack involving US service members.
Briefing reporters, Karoline Leavitt confirmed, “We have paused all asylum adjudications. And then, of course, the Special Immigrant Visas, which we know many Afghans utilized to come into the country under the previous administration, have also now been paused.”
Leavitt went on to accuse the Biden administration of what she described as the “original sin” that, according to her, led to last week’s tragic killing. She linked the incident directly to the withdrawal from Afghanistan and to the resettlement program known as Operation Allies Welcome.
“They assured the American people there would be no risk or no harm,” Leavitt said, adding that subsequent events had proven those assurances false. She pointed to the families of two National Guard members — “one who is no longer with us and one who continues to fight for his life” — as evidence, she argued, of policy failure.
The White House spokesperson stressed that the president remains “wholeheartedly focused” on border and immigration enforcement and said the killings underscore the administration’s determination to continue its mass deportation operation.
“These events do remind us why it’s so important that the president’s mass deportation operation continues,” Leavitt said.
The pause on asylum and SIV processing marks one of the most aggressive immigration enforcement moves by the current administration so far and is expected to have major implications for thousands of pending cases, particularly those involving Afghan nationals awaiting relocation to the United States.
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