Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull's resettlement plan with the US appears doomed with Donald Trump vowing to stop the flow of Middle East refugees to America "dead cold flat".
At a 50-minute rally before a crowd of supporters in Cincinnati on Thursday, the US president-elect linked Monday's violent rampage by Somalian immigrant Abdul Razak Ali Artan at Ohio State University to refugee programs "stupidly created by our very stupid politicians".
Mr Trump, who moves into the White House in 50 days, said he will "suspend immigration from regions where it cannot be safely processed".
The more than 2000 refugees in detention facilities on Nauru and Manus Island are from countries including Somalia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan and Sri Lanka.
"We will do everything in our power to keep the scourge of terrorism out of our country," Trump told the crowd during his first major address since winning the presidency three weeks ago.
"Just so you understand, people are pouring in from regions of the Middle East.
"We have no idea who they are, where they come from, what they're thinking and we're going to stop them dead cold flat."
Mr Turnbull struck the deal with US President Barack Obama but it appears unlikely the asylum seekers will be processed and relocated to the US before Mr Trump moves into the White House on January 20.
Mr Turnbull's plan also faces opposition from Congress, with two senior members, chairman of the US Senate Judiciary Committee Charles Grassley and chairman of the House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Bob Goodlatte, penning a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Homeland Security secretary Jeh Johnson requesting information.
They said they discovered the deal from media reports.
"This situation is concerning for many reasons," they wrote.
"First, your departments negotiated an international agreement regarding refugees without consulting or notifying Congress."
The Australia-US refugee deal, described by Mr Turnbull as a one-off, has also become a talking point on American cable TV network Fox News.
"This is a backroom deal, wheeling and dealing with another country's refugee problem," Center for Immigration Studies fellow Don Barnett told FoxNews.com.
"I don't believe for a moment it's a one-time deal."
Artan, a student at Ohio State, was shot dead by a campus police officer after injuring 11 people.
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