The Trump administration announced Friday that it has suspended all asylum decisions and halted the issuing of visas for Afghan nationals, days after two National Guard members were shot in Washington, D.C., one fatally.
Joseph B. Edlow, the director of the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS), said in a post on X that the agency is pausing all asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Shortly after, the State Department posted that it had “IMMEDIATELY paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”
The shooting has ignited a firestorm of blowback from the administration since authorities identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national. He was shot, and is being treated at a hospital. It also seems to have reignited Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
The Washington Post reported that Lakanwal underwent complete vetting from counter-terrorism authorities before being allowed into the United States in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome. That program was launched by President Joe Biden to smooth entrance to the U.S. for Afghan nationals who helped U.S. forces during American military operations there.
The Post also reported that Lakanwal worked with the CIA in Afghanistan as part of a special unit charged with targeting terrorists.
But the Trump administration was quick to seize on the subject’s immigration status in the wake of the shooting.
On Thursday, President Donald Trump posted a broad attack on migrants in the U.S. on Truth Social, warning that he would “permanently pause migration” from what he called “Third World Countries.”
Just hours later, Edlow said he had “directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination” of green card holders “from every country of concern,” referring to 19 countries in Trump’s June proclamation restricting entry for certain foreign nationals.
Many of the administration’s recent immigration measures build off of or were already in motion prior to the shooting, including an effort to re-evaluate refugees admitted under Biden and to ban visas from countries labeled high-risk because of national security threats.
One of the National Guard troops, Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died on Thursday. The other, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.
MS Now previously reported that the FBI’s joint terrorism task force in Washington is investigating whether it was an act of terrorism.
USCIS later announced that the “processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” effective immediately.
Akayla Gardner contributed to this report.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.