The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports days after a shooting near the White House that left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition on November 26. Investigators continued on Saturday to seek a motive in the shooting, with the suspect a 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War and now faces charges including first-degree murder. The man applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted it this year under Trump, according to a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped US forces in their country.
The Trump administration has seized on the shooting to vow to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration, promising to pause entry from some poor countries and review Afghans and other legal migrants already in the country. That is in addition to other measures, some of which were previously set in motion.
The 29-year-old suspect, Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Pics/PTI
Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” and criticised the Biden administration for enabling entry by Afghans who worked with US forces.
The director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a post on the social platform X that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group AfghanEvac, said in response, “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.”
Investigators are executing warrants in Washington state and other parts of the country in search of the suspect, Lakanwal, who is yet to be found by the authorities.
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