President Donald Trump declared on Thursday that he plans to “permanently halt” immigration from all developing nations and reassess green-card holders who do not contribute positively to the country.
The term “Third World,” in its modern usage, generally refers to economically disadvantaged or developing nations with lower rankings on the Human Development Index (HDI). The phrase originally emerged during the Cold War to classify countries that were not aligned with either the United States and its Western allies (“First World”) or the Soviet bloc (“Second World”).
Over time, its meaning has shifted toward describing countries facing economic instability, widespread poverty, or lower overall living standards. In recent years, many institutions and policymakers have moved toward alternatives such as “developing countries” or “low- and lower-middle-income countries,” citing concerns about accuracy and neutrality, Just the News reported.
National security has been used as the basis for near-total immigration shutdowns in the United States as far back as the early 20th century. During the Great Depression and World War II, roughly from 1930 to 1945, strict enforcement of the “likely to become a public charge” provision and wartime security protocols drove legal immigration to extremely low levels, even without a formal blanket ban. Comparable slowdowns occurred between 1918 and 1920 amid the Spanish flu pandemic and post–World War I instability, and again in the months following the September 11, 2001, attacks, when consular visa processing was largely halted for security reviews.
Although laws such as the 1921 Emergency Quota Act and the 1924 Immigration Act significantly limited immigration through numerical caps, the 2020 measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic remain the only modern instance of a formal, broad suspension that effectively paused nearly all legal immigration channels.
Earlier national security crackdowns also included mass deportation efforts. In 1919, the Department of Justice deported more than 500 people—including anarchist Emma Goldman—during a series of operations later known as the Palmer Raids.
Nearly 10,000 people across 70 cities were arrested amid concerns about radicalism and European immigration, actions directed by Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer, Just the News noted.
Trump entered politics in 2015, illegal immigration has remained one of his signature issues. During his second term, deportation policies have continued to divide public opinion, with many liberal groups opposing the enforcement actions while others support efforts to reduce the undocumented population.
In Charlotte, N.C., and surrounding communities, recent ICE operations have reshaped daily activity in areas known for day-labor pickups. Several locations — including apartment complex parking lots, shopping centers, and street-corner hiring sites — have appeared noticeably empty during hours that were previously crowded with workers.
Community members and business owners in other cities experiencing similar enforcement activity, such as Atlanta, Nashville, and parts of suburban Chicago, report comparable declines.
The shift has led some local officials and residents to question whether the federal government has underestimated the number of undocumented immigrants living in the United States. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), through its Office of Homeland Security Statistics, estimates the current illegal immigrant population in the U.S. to be around 11 million, a figure that has stood for decades.
“Critics of the official estimates, including former Border Patrol chiefs, analysts at the Center for Immigration Studies and FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform), argue that the true unauthorized immigrant population is likely between 15 and 20 million or higher, contending that DHS and Pew figures substantially undercount recent border crossers, visa overstays, and those evading census surveys entirely,” the outlet reported.
