President Donald Trump has announced a “permanent pause” on migration from what he termed “third world countries,” following the fatal shooting of two national guard members near the White House.
Trump
In a late-night social media post on Thursday, Trump said his administration would also end federal benefits for noncitizens and deport “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
The announcement came hours after the death of Sarah Beckstrom, one of the guards shot in Wednesday’s attack. The second guard, Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition.
Authorities identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in 2021 under a resettlement programme and was granted asylum earlier this year. He was injured during the attack and is in custody.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has suspended processing of Afghan immigration requests, while the Department of Homeland Security said it would review asylum cases approved under the Biden administration.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow added that all green cards from “countries of concern” would undergo re-examination, citing a travel ban Trump imposed in June on citizens of 19 nations, including Afghanistan, Venezuela and Sierra Leone.
Trump’s latest directive marks an escalation in his administration’s immigration crackdown, which has already seen mass deportations and the deployment of national guard troops in Washington, D.C.
Legal experts note that similar bans in Trump’s first term faced significant court challenges, raising questions about the enforceability of the new measures.
