US President Donald Trump is planning to suspend migration from what he described as “third-world countries,” a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said that although the country has “progressed technologically,” he believes that current immigration policy has “eroded those gains.” He said that migration from “all Third World Countries” should be halted so the US system could “fully recover.”
Trump also added that he wanted to overturn what he described as “millions of Biden illegal admissions.” In the same note, he said he intended to remove anyone he viewed as “not a net asset to the United States” or “incapable of loving our Country.”
Trump added that any foreign national considered a “public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization” should be deported.
How The Term “Third World” Emerged
The idea of the First, Second and Third World comes from the Cold War, when the world was split between the US-aligned Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc, with neutral nations and the rest grouped as the Third World. Often used to describe poorer or “underdeveloped” countries, the term is widely seen as outdated.
Historically, the First World referred to democratic, industrialised nations aligned with the US. The Second World to communist-socialist states led by workers and peasants, and the Third World to the majority of countries belonging to neither bloc.
The First World included North America, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Several African territories were grouped here due to Western ties, such as Western Sahara under Spain, apartheid-era South Africa and South West Africa (Namibia), while Angola and Mozambique were Portuguese-run until becoming communist in 1975. Neutral states like Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Ireland and Finland were also effectively treated as First World.
The Second World covered the Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, including Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia and the Balkans, to Asian communist countries linked to China, such as Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The Third World included all other nations, largely underdeveloped agricultural states across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Trump's Continuous Crackdown On Migrants
The Trump administration said on November 28 that it would review the immigration status of every permanent resident or “Green Card” holder from Afghanistan and 18 other countries.
Joseph Edlow, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), wrote on X, “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.
When asked about the countries Edlow meant, a USCIS spokesperson told AFP that the list was defined in Trump's June 2025 executive order, which classifies 19 nations as “of Identified Concern.”
Nations Flagged As “Identified Concern”
The order blocked entry for almost all nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The countries subject to the full travel ban were Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. Trump also introduced a partial ban on travellers from seven additional countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
