Immigration applications from 19 countries subjected to a travel ban by the Trump administration earlier this year have been paused indefinitely because of national security concerns, the US government agency that processes visas and green cards has said.

A policy memo posted on Tuesday to the website of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), part of the homeland security department, also places an immediate “adjudicative hold” on all asylum applications regardless of a person’s nationality, and directs a review of aliens from “high risk countries of concern” admitted to the US after 20 January 2021, the first day of the Biden administration.

The aggressive new stance by immigration authorities follows the Thanksgiving week shooting in Washington DC of two national guar

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