The U.S. has suspended all immigration requests from Afghans after two National Guardsmen were shot in Washington, D.C., in an attack described by Donald Trump as an “act of terror”.
An Afghan man was identified as the suspect in the shooting near the White House on Wednesday. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said immigration requests have been stopped “indefinitely” with the decision made pending a review of “security and vetting protocols”.
The move follows Trump’s call for his government to re-examine Afghan immigrants who entered the United States when Joe Biden was president.
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“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X/Twitter.
The suspect in the shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is a 29-year-old Afghan national who resided in Washington state with no known criminal history.
He is said to have arrived in the U.S. from Afghanistan in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the American forces during the war and feared reprisals from Taliban forces who seized control of their homeland after the U.S. withdrawal.
Trump had earlier said that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was “confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth”.
He called the suspect an “animal”, warning that the attacker would pay the “steepest possible price”.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, accused the previous administration of failing to vet the applicants “on a massive scale”, The New York Times reports.
The two wounded soldiers, members of the West Virginia National Guard who remain in a critical condition, were part of a “high-visibility patrol” around 2.15p.m. E.T. near the corner of 17th and I streets, a few blocks from the White House.
The suspect came around a corner and “ambushed” them, Metropolitan Police Assistant Chief Jeff Carroll said at a press briefing, adding that other National Guard troops subdued the shooter after an exchange of gunfire.
“This is a targeted shooting,” Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the briefing. Officials currently believe the shooter was acting alone.
FBI director,Kash Patel said the agency is investigating the shooting as an act of terrorism.
“This heinous assault was an act of evil and an act of hatred and an act of terror. It was a crime against our entire nation,” Trump said in remarks Wednesday evening.
“It was a crime against humanity. We’re also filled with righteous anger and ferocious resolve.”
The suspect, Lakanwal, “should never have been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said.
Speaking about the suspension of Afghan immigration, he said: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the CIA head said, according to the New York Post.
“The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration, which failed to vet these applicants on a massive scale,” he added.
Later on Thursday it emerged Lakanwal had worked alongside CIA-backed military units during U.S. operations in Afghanistan, the agency has confirmed.
An additional 500 National Guard troops have been deployed to Washington, D.C. by the president.
