The Trump administration says it won’t process immigration requests from Afghan nationals for the foreseeable future. The order comes after a gunman opened fire on two National Guard members in the busy streets of Washington, D.C., just blocks away from the White House, on Wednesday afternoon.
Authorities identified the shooter as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
“This heinous assault was an act of evil, an act of hatred, and an act of terror,” President Donald Trump told the nation in an address Wednesday night. “It was a crime against our entire nation. It was a crime against humanity.”
The West Virginia guard members — who were in Washington as part of the Trump administration’s takeover of the police department there — were taken to the hospital in critical condition. Investigators say it appears to have been a “targeted shooting.”
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a social media post that Lakanwal was in the U.S. after being granted parole in 2021 under the Biden administration’s “Operation Allies Welcome” initiative. The initiative helped to safely relocate “vulnerable Afghans” and those who worked alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal from the country and subsequent Taliban takeover.
The federal government granted Lakanwal asylum earlier this year.
President Trump is now calling for a review of the immigration statuses of all Afghan migrants who were admitted to the U.S. during the Biden administration.
“We’re not going to put up with these kinds of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country,” he said. “We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”
Authorities shot the suspect before restraining him and taking him into custody. They said he was hospitalized but his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to mobilize 500 more National Guard troops to D.C. following the shooting.
