Crystal Dike
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday vowed to suspend migration from what he described as “third world countries,” a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, killing one.
Trump made the announcement in an angry social media post on November 27, linking the deadly attack to immigration policies under his predecessor, Joe Biden. He also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted by the previous administration and pledged to remove from the country “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
The slain guardsman was identified as Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard deployed to Washington as part of a federal security operation. Trump confirmed she died from her injuries sustained during the November 26 shooting.
The FBI has since launched an international terror investigation as new details emerged about the suspected gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously served alongside U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Authorities said he had been living in Washington State and drove across the country to the nation’s capital before carrying out the attack.
The second soldier, Andrew Wolfe, 24, was critically wounded and remained in a life-threatening condition as of Thursday. The suspect was also hospitalised in serious condition.
U.S. Attorney for Washington, D.C., Jeanine Pirro, described the incident as a “brazen and targeted” ambush. She said the suspect opened fire with a .357 Smith & Wesson revolver on a group of guardsmen on patrol just blocks from the White House.
Lakanwal was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill. Prosecutors said the charges would be upgraded to first-degree murder following Beckstrom’s death. Investigators said the motive behind the shooting remains unclear.
In a Thanksgiving video call with U.S. troops later on Thursday, Trump described the attack as a “terrorist act in our nation’s capital” and linked it to his decision to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops to Washington as part of a crime crackdown.
Trump said he would “permanently pause migration from all third world countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” renewing one of the most controversial elements of his immigration agenda. He also accused the Biden administration of weakening border security through mass admissions.
Meanwhile, Joseph Edlow, Trump’s Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced a “full-scale and rigorous re-examination” of all green cards issued to nationals from countries deemed of security concern. USCIS later referenced a list of 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar, that were previously placed under U.S. travel restrictions in an executive order issued in June.
The Trump administration had earlier ordered an immediate suspension of immigration application processing for Afghan nationals.
The shooting has intensified national debate over immigration, the domestic deployment of the military and the lingering security implications of the U.S. war in Afghanistan.