Outside the Beltway

Trump to ‘Permanently Pause’ Immigration from Poor Countries

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for.

James Joyner · Friday, November 28, 2025 · 11 comments

AP (“Trump vows to ‘permanently pause’ migration from poor nations in anti-immigrant social media screed“):

President Donald Trump vowed on Thanksgiving to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations in a blistering late-night, anti-immigrant screed posted to social media.

The extended rant came in the wake of the Wednesday shooting of two National Guard members who were deployed to patrol Washington, D.C. under Trump’s orders, one of whom died shortly before the president spoke to U.S. troops by video on Thursday evening.

A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War is facing charges for the shooting. The suspect emigrated as part of a program to resettle those who has helped American troops after U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform. “Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”

Here’s the complete Truth Social message:

A very Happy Thanksgiving salutation to all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots who have been so nice in allowing our Country to be divided, disrupted, carved up, murdered, beaten, mugged, and laughed at, along with certain other foolish countries throughout the World, for being “Politically Correct,” and just plain STUPID, when it comes to Immigration. The official United States Foreign population stands at 53 million people (Census), most of which are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels. They and their children are supported through massive payments from Patriotic American Citizens who, because of their beautiful hearts, do not want to openly complain or cause trouble in any way, shape, or form. They put up with what has happened to our Country, but it’s eating them alive to do so! A migrant earning $30,000 with a green card will get roughly $50,000 in yearly benefits for their family. The real migrant population is much higher. This refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America, something that did not exist after World War II (Failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits, etc.). As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota. Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for “prey” as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone. The seriously retarded Governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, does nothing, either through fear, incompetence, or both, while the worst “Congressman/woman” in our Country, Ilhan Omar, always wrapped in her swaddling hijab, and who probably came into the U.S.A. illegally in that you are not allowed to marry your brother, does nothing but hatefully complain about our Country, its Constitution, and how “badly” she is treated, when her place of origin is a decadent, backward, and crime ridden nation, which is essentially not even a country for lack of Government, Military, Police, schools, etc…

The President’s ability to mix traditional sentiment and bile in the same sentence is unrivaled.

It is unclear whether the “pause” applies only to “shithole countries” or to a broader array of states that don’t qualify for membership in the OECD. It’s possible that this policy has not yet been fully staffed.

Traditionally, Congress has set the broad parameters of US immigration policy. But, of course, the second Trump administration has been somewhat less than traditional in its sense of latitude to make public policy.

Regardless, there are some who think this is less than a stellar concept. Back to the AP report:

Trump’s threat to stop immigration would be a serious blow to a nation that has long defined itself as welcoming immigrants.

Elected on a promise to crack down on illegal migration, Trump’s raids and deportations have disrupted communities across the U.S. as construction sites and schools have been targets. The prospect of more deportations could be economically dangerous as America’s foreign-born workers account for nearly 31 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The president said on Truth Social that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents “are on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels” as he blamed them for crime across the country that is predominantly committed by U.S. citizens.

The perception that immigration breeds crime “continues to falter under the weight of the evidence,” according to a review of academic literature last year in the Annual Review of Criminology.

“With few exceptions, studies conducted at both the aggregate and individual levels demonstrate that high concentrations of immigrants are not associated with increased levels of crime and delinquency across neighborhoods and cities in the United States,” it said.

A study by economists initially released in 2023 found immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than people born in the U.S. Immigrants have been imprisoned at lower rates for 150 years, the study found, adding to past research undermining Trump’s claims.

In fairness, we have incarcerated a lot of immigrants this year, so those statistics may be OBE.

But Trump seemed to have little interest in a policy debate in his unusually lengthy social media post, which the White House, on its own rapid response social media account, called “one of the most important messages ever released by President Trump.”

Trump pledged to “terminate” millions of admissions to the country made during the term of his predecessor, Joe Biden. He also wants to end federal benefits and subsidies for noncitizens, denaturalize people “who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport foreign nationals deemed “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

Trump claimed immigrants from Somalia are “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” as he used a dated slur for intellectually disabled people to demean that state’s governor, Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee last year, calling him “seriously retarded.”

“Western Civilization” has cropped up a lot in recent rhetoric from the administration, which is also trying to curtail non-European migration in Europe, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. The meaning is not clear, but presumably it has to do with an abiding respect for democracy, scientific reasoning, and liberal institutions. Everything America stands for, and all that.