The United States government has announced it will re-examine all permanent resident visas (Green Cards) issued to persons from a group of 19 countries classified as “countries of concern.” The review was ordered by Donald J. Trump following a fatal shooting involving two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., allegedly carried out by a suspect identified as from one of the flagged countries.
The directive was issued by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) under its director Joseph Edlow. In a public post, Edlow wrote that the re-examination will be “full scale” and “rigorous,” applying to every Green Card held by nationals from the 19 countries in question. The review aims to revisit previous admissions and residency grants under what the agency describes as a change in evaluation criteria.
The 19 countries subject to this review are: Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. 
Under the new policy, USCIS will consider “country-specific negative factors” when evaluating immigrants from these nations. Among these factors is the country’s ability to issue secure identity documents. USCIS says that for nationals from these flagged countries, past admissions will be re-assessed under this enhanced scrutiny.
Furthermore, the administration has announced a suspension of all immigration requests relating to nationals of one of the flagged countries, namely Afghanistan, pending a broader review of security and vetting protocols. At the same time, the government said it will reassess asylum cases that had been approved under the prior administration.
This decision comes against a backdrop: earlier in 2025, a presidential proclamation placed entry restrictions on some of these 19 countries. Under that proclamation, partial restrictions affect immigrant visas and many non-immigrant categories.
The immediate trigger for the re-examination was a shooting in Washington involving two National Guard members. The suspect was identified as a man from Afghanistan who had been resettled in the United States under a special immigration program after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. The suspect reportedly had past links to U.S. intelligence operations. The government says the decision to review Green Cards is part of a renewed effort to assure national security and to overhaul what it calls previous “reckless resettlement policies.” 
It is relevant to note that previously, Nigerians had featured prominently among recipients of U.S. Green Cards. In 2023, for example, Nigeria ranked 15th globally among countries whose citizens were granted permanent residency status in the United States, and was the only African country in the top 20 for that year. 
While the move signals tighter scrutiny and the possibility of revocation or denial for persons from those countries, the review does not apply to nations outside the list, including Nigeria.
Samuel Aina