Washington DC shooting: Which ‘Third World’ countries Trump wants to ban migration from?

Donald Trump has intensified his crackdown on immigration after an Afghan national was accused of shooting two members of the National Guard in Washington DC on Wednesday (November 26). Sarah Beckstrom, one of the National Guard troops shot, has died, the US president announced a day after the attack. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is still fighting for his life, he added.

A furious Trump has threatened to suspend immigration from “all Third World countries” in the wake of the shooting. This comes after he ordered the United States government to re-examine all green card applications from 19 “countries of concern”.

Let’s take a closer look.

Which are ‘Third World’ nations?

The term “Third World” is used for poor or developing countries, while ‘First World’ refers to rich or developed nations. However, these words were not coined to divide countries on an economic basis but on their political alignment.

The “three worlds” model was first introduced during the Cold War. The term ‘Third World’ was invented by French demographer Alfred Sauvy in a 1952 article titled Three Worlds, One Planet.

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In this context, the First World was used for the US and its capitalist allies such as Western Europe, Japan and Australia.

The term Second World was used for the communist Soviet Union and its Eastern European bloc. The Third World consisted of other countries that were not aligned with either side in the Cold War.

These nations mostly included poor former European colonies, and almost all the nations in Asia, Africa, West Asia, and Latin America.

Today, the First World is still used to describe Western economies. The meaning of “Third World” has shifted from “non-aligned” to refer to countries in the developing world.

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However, the term Third World has become obsolete today, with phrases like “developing countries” and “low and lower-middle-income countries” used in its place.

The United Nations currently designates 44 states as Least Developed Countries (LDCs). This list includes 32 countries in Africa, such as Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Zambia; eight in Asia, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Yemen; one in the Caribbean (Haiti), and three in the Pacific — Kiribati, Solomon Islands, and Tuvalu.

Trump warns ‘Third World’ countries

US President Donald Trump has said he will suspend immigration from “all Third World countries” following the attack near the White House.

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

He further said that all federal benefits and subsidies to “noncitizens” will end, and he will “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity, and deport any foreign national who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization”.

Trump did not identify the nations or what he meant by third-world countries.

The US president’s remarks came after two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot near the White House in Washington, DC.

An Afghan immigrant, identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, has been named as a suspect in the shooting, which led to the death of one of the victims. Lakanwal had entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme set up by the then Joe Biden administration after the American military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Authorities said the accused was among the nearly 76,000 Afghans brought to the US after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as the Taliban took over the country, according to Associated Press (AP). 

The alleged gunman was, however, granted asylum this year under Trump, Reuters reported, citing a US government file.

In a separate post before the announcement, Trump claimed that “hundreds of thousands” of people poured into the US totally “unvetted and unchecked” during what he called the “horrendous” airlift from Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, “pending further review of security and vetting protocols”.

“These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations,” Trump said.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”

Should Indians worry?

As the outdated term ‘Third World’ is generally used to refer to developing countries in the Global South, India falls under the category.

However, it is unclear what Trump meant by ‘third-world’ countries. There is no clarity yet on the issue.

Review of Green Cards

According to officials from the Department of Homeland Security, Trump has ordered a review of asylum cases approved under Biden’s administration and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.

The Trump administration said it would review the immigration status of every “Green Card” holder from Afghanistan and 18 other countries.

Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Thursday (November 28) that he had ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Edlow reportedly said.

While he did not reveal the applicants’ of which countries would be reviewed, his office told AP to refer to a June 4 presidential proclamation restricting nationals of 19 countries from entering the US.

This list includes Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Myanmar, Cuba, Venezuela and Yemen.

A full travel ban was imposed on travellers from Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen, while a partial ban was put on visitors from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

With inputs from agencies