By Bongiwe Dlamini

MBABANE:United States President Donald Trump has sharply escalated his crackdown on immigration with an announcement of a “permanent pause” on migration from “all Third World Countries” late on Thursday, Aljazeera reported.

But the President’s remarks came a day after two National Guard members were shot, one of whom has since died from her injuries-in Washington, DC on Wednesday and an Afghan national has been named as the primary suspect.

“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,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Trump did not specify what “third world” means and did not name any countries but the phrase “third world” generally refers to Global South countries that are economically still developing or economically disadvantaged.

The US President also said “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our country”, will be removed from the US.