On top of the pause on all asylum decisions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department paused 'visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passport'.
The Trump administration has stopped all asylum decisions and paused the handling of visas for anyone travelling of an Afghan passport following the shooting of two national Guard members which left one dead, near the White House.
Investigators are still trying to determine a motive. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal a 29-year-old Afghan who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War, now faces charges including first-degree murder. He applied for asylum under the Biden administration and was granted it this year, according to a group helping Afghans who assisted US forces.
The Trump administration has used the shooting to promise stricter control of legal immigration, saying it will pause entry from some poor countries and review Afghans and other migrants already in the US.
Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died after the Wednesday shooting, while Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, has been hospitalised in critical condition. They were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard as part of Trump’s crime-fighting mission in the city.
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office said the charges against Rahmanullah Lakanwal also include two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed and according to Pirro there are “many charges to come.”
Trump halts asylum decisions
Trump criticised the Biden administration for enabling entry by Afghans who worked with US forces and called the shooting a “terrorist attack”.
Joseph Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department paused “visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”
Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego group #AfghanEvac, said: “They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”
Officials said Lakanwal entered the US in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration programme that resettled Afghans after the US withdrawal. He applied for asylum under Biden, but it was approved this year under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.
Lakanwal served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit, known as one of the special Zero Units, in Kandahar province, according to a relative from Khost who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.