A day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, US President Donald Trump announced that migration from “third-world countries” will be suspended.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated that while the country has “progressed technologically,” he believes that current immigration policy has “eroded those gains.” He stated that migration from “all Third World Countries” should be stopped so that the US system may “fully recover.”
Trump also stated that he wants to overturn “millions of Biden’s illegal admissions.” In the same message, he stated that he wanted to remove anyone he considered “not a net asset to the United States” or “incapable of loving our Country.”
Trump also stated that any foreign national deemed a “public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization” should be deported.
How the term “Third World” originated
The concept of the First, Second, and Third Worlds originated during the Cold War, when the world was divided between the US-aligned Western Bloc and the communist Eastern Bloc, with neutral states and the rest classified as the Third World. The term, which is commonly used to designate poorer or “underdeveloped” countries, is usually considered out of date.
Historically, the First World referred to democratic, industrialized nations that allied with the United States. The Second World is made up of communist-socialist governments governed by workers and peasants, whereas the Third World includes the bulk of countries that do not belong to either bloc.
The First World comprised North America, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, and Australia. Several African territories were lumped together because of their Western ties, including Western Sahara under Spain, apartheid-era South Africa, and South West Africa (Namibia), while Angola and Mozambique were Portuguese-run until 1975, when they became communist. Neutral countries such as Switzerland, Sweden, Austria, Ireland, and Finland were practically treated as First World.
The Second World War spanned from the Soviet republics and Eastern Europe, which included Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the Balkans, to Asian communist countries related to China, such as Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
The Third World comprised all other nations, primarily impoverished agricultural states in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.
Donald Trump’s Continuous Crackdown on Migrants.
The Trump administration said on November 28 that it would review the immigration status of all permanent residents or “Green Card” holders from Afghanistan and 18 other nations.
Joseph Edlow, head of 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 was referring to, a USCIS official told AFP that the list was defined in Trump’s June 2025 executive order, which lists 19 nations as “of Identified Concern.”
Nations Flagged As “Identified Concern”
The ban denied entrance to practically all people from 12 nations, including Afghanistan. Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen were among the countries subject to a complete travel ban. Trump also imposed a partial ban on travel from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.
