President Donald Trump has halted the arrival of refugees already cleared to enter the United States, according to a memo, as he quickly pursues a sweeping crackdown on migration.
Following an executive order signed after Mr Trump took office, "all previously scheduled travel of refugees to the United States is being cancelled," said a State Department email to groups working with new arrivals.
The memo asked the UN International Organization for Migration not to move refugees to transit centres and said that all processing on cases has also been suspended.
Refugees already resettled in the United States will continue to receive services as planned, it said.
President Trump in each of his presidential campaigns has run on promises to crack down on undocumented immigration.
However, the refugee move also targets a legal pathway for people fleeing wars, persecution or disasters.
In his executive order, he said he was suspending refugee admissions as of 27 January and ordered a report on how to change the program, in part by giving "greater involvement" to states and local jurisdictions, which he said were being "inundated".
It also revoked his predecessor Joe Biden's decision to consider the impact of climate change in refugee admissions.
Mr Trump said during his election campaign that immigrants were "poisoning the blood of our country" and earlier rose to prominence questioning the citizenship of Barack Obama, the first African-American president.
New Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, said that the State Department will "no longer undertake any activities that facilitate or encourage mass migration".
"Our diplomatic relations with other countries, particularly in the Western Hemisphere, will prioritise securing America's borders, stopping illegal and destabilising migration and negotiating the repatriation of illegal immigrants," Mr Rubio said in a statement.
Joe Biden had embraced the refugee programme as a way to support people in need through legal means.
In the 2024 fiscal year, more than 100,000 refugees resettled in the United States, the most in three decades.
The Democratic Republic of Congo and Myanmar have been among the top sources of refugees in recent years.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, voiced alarm at President Trump's moves and said that acceptance of refugees was "a core American value".
"The US Refugee Admissions Program has a long history of bipartisan support and is a life-saving tool for the most vulnerable refugees, all while making Americans safer by promoting stability around the world," she said.
The State Department memo said that Afghans who worked with the United States until the collapse of the Western-backed government in 2021 could still arrive through their separate resettlement program.
But Ms Shaheen voiced concern that Afghans were also being left in limbo with flights cancelled.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that there are 37.9 million refugees in the world, among some 122.6 million displaced people.
Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, president and CEO of Global Refuge, which advocates for refugees, said that Trump's decision was "devastating" to people who had already lost so much.
"Refugees go through one of the most rigorous vetting processes in the world, and it's heartbreaking to see their dreams of safety derailed just days before, or in some cases, just hours before they were set to begin their new lives here," she said.
His spokeswoman said Mr Trump will send 1,500 more soldiers to the border with Mexico as part of a flurry of steps to tackle immigration.
"President Trump signed an executive order for 1,500 additional troops for the United States' southern border," Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at the White House.
Trump calls Washington bishop 'nasty', demands apology
Earlier, Mr Trump called a Washington bishop "nasty" and demanded an apology, after she told him from the pulpit that he was sowing fear among the country's immigrants and LGBTQ people.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, pleaded for LGBT people and illegal migrants - two groups that Mr Trump targeted with executive orders within hours of being sworn in.
Mr Trump had gone to the traditional presidential service to commemorate his inauguration and was clearly not expecting the criticism.
"I ask you to have mercy, Mr President," the bishop said softly, evoking the "fear" that she said is felt across the country.
Watch: Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde pleads for mercy for immigrants and LGBT people
Writing on his Truth Social platform this morning, Mr Trump said: "The so-called Bishop who spoke at the National Prayer Service on Tuesday morning was a Radical Left hard line Trump hater.
"She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.... She and her church owe the public an apology!"
After taking office, Mr Trump decreed that only two sexes - male and female, but not transgender - will be recognised.
Bishop Budde told Mr Trump, who was seated in the church's front pew next to his wife Melania: "I ask you to have mercy, Mr President."
Asked what he thought about her remarks, Mr Trump earlier said: "I didn't think it was a good service."
Watch: Donald Trump reacts to National Prayer Service
However, in his Truth Social post, the president railed against "illegal migrants":
"Apart from her inappropriate statements, the service was a very boring and uninspiring one. She is not very good at her job! She and her church owe the public an apology!"
In her sermon, Bishop Budde said: "There are gay and lesbian and transgender children in Democratic, Republican and independent families.
"The people who pick our farms and clean our office buildings, who labour in poultry farms and meat packing plants, who wash the dishes after we eat in restaurants and work the night shifts in hospitals - they may not be citizens or have the proper documentation," she said.
"But the vast majority of immigrants are not criminals."
An unsmiling Mr Trump looked back at Bishop Budde and sometimes away. His family and Vice President JD Vance seemed similarly surprised and displeased at the intervention.
Trump escalates campaign against diversity, threatens private sector probes
Meanwhile, Mr Trump has escalated his campaign against diversity programmes by pressuring the private sector to join the initiative, ordering aviation officials to review diversity hires and telling government DEI employees they would be placed on paid leave.
Civil rights advocates have argued such programmes are necessary to address longstanding inequities and structural racism.
In a new executive order issued yesterday, Mr Trump revoked executive orders dating as far back as 1965 on environmental actions, equal employment opportunities and encouragement to federal contractors to achieve workforce balancing on race, gender and religion.
The 1965 order that was revoked was signed by President Lyndon Johnson to protect the rights of workers employed by federal contractors and ensure they remained free from discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin, according to the Labor Department.
The Trump executive order seeks to dissuade private companies that receive government contracts from hiring employees from marginalised backgrounds - what the order called "illegal DEI discrimination and preferences" - and asked government agencies to identify private companies that might be subject to civil investigation.
Full details on how the Trump administration would enforce "civil compliance investigations" were not immediately available.
The order issued stipulates that federal and private-sector employment preferences for military veterans could continue.
Separately, the Trump administration instructed US federal government departments and agencies to dismantle all DEI programmes, advising employees of such programmes that they would be immediately placed on paid leave.
The government should by the end of business today inform employees of any government offices or units focused exclusively on DEI that their programmes will be shut down and employees placed on leave, the Office of Personnel Management said in a memorandum.
Mr Trump also signed a memorandum that ends a Biden administration initiative to promote diversity in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), ordering the FAA Administrator to immediately stop DEI hiring programmes, the White House said.
Mr Trump ordered the FAA to conduct a safety review that would replace any employees who fail to demonstrate their competence.
"President Trump is immediately terminating this illegal and dangerous programme and requiring that all FAA hiring be based solely on ensuring the safety of airline passengers and overall job excellence," the White House said in a fact sheet.
