After an Afghan national was identified as the suspect in a Washington, D.C., shooting that left one National Guard member dead and another critically injured, the Trump administration said it is pausing all asylum decisions.
Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, announced the pause Friday night, saying the agency will halt decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.” Edlow wrote on X that “the safety of the American people always comes first.”
The move follows President Trump’s pledge of a broad crackdown on immigration from what he called “third world” countries. On Truth Social, Trump said, “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” adding that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.” He has repeatedly criticized immigrants from poorer nations as burdens on welfare and threats to public safety.
Edlow also said he was directed to conduct “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” He did not specify which countries would be included. A June White House proclamation previously imposed a travel ban on 12 countries of concern, many in Africa and including Afghanistan; seven additional countries faced partial restrictions.
The Department of Homeland Security told CNN it had already halted all immigration requests from Afghanistan and was reviewing “all” asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. The DHS did not provide further comment to NPR.
The suspected shooter was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who had worked with the CIA against the Taliban and who was admitted to the U.S. in 2021 because of that service. In a Thanksgiving Day call with servicemembers, Trump called the shooting a terrorist attack and the suspect a “savage monster,” blaming the Biden administration for permitting his entry and faulting the broader immigration system.
Trump broadened his criticism of immigrants in remarks to reporters, describing asylum seekers broadly as gang members, mentally ill, or previously incarcerated. When told Lakanwal had been vetted as a former CIA asset, Trump dismissed the reporter’s question and denigrated immigrants from other countries, including Somalis — whom he has often blamed for crime in Minnesota, home to the largest Somali community in the U.S.
The administration has already pursued aggressive removals and third-country deportation agreements. Venezuelans have been deported to El Salvador, some migrants sent to Eswatini and South Sudan, and Rwanda has agreed to accept deportees.
U.N. officials criticized calls for sweeping halts to immigration seekers. “They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process,” U.N. human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence said in Geneva.
