US halts all immigration processing for Afghan nationals after attack near White House

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services said late on Wednesday it has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, after two National Guard soldiers were shot and critically wounded in Washington.

President Donald Trump said that the shooting near the White House was "an act of terror," saying the suspect came from Afghanistan in 2021.

The move follows Trump's call for his government to re-examine Afghan immigrants who entered the United States when Joe Biden was President.

"The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission," the US Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X.

Trump said Wednesday's "heinous assault" on two National Guard members near the White House proves that lax migration policies are "the single greatest national security threat facing our nation." "No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival," he said.

Trump's remarks, released in a video on social media, underscores his intention to reshape the country's immigration system and increase scrutiny of migrants who are already here.

With aggressive deportation efforts already underway, his response to the shooting showed that his focus will not waver.

The suspect in the shooting is believed to be an Afghan national, according to Trump and two law enforcement officials. He entered the United States in September 2021, after the chaotic collapse of the government in Kabul, when Americans were frantically evacuating people as the Taliban took control.

The 29-year-old suspect was part of Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era programme that resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the US withdrawal from the country, officials said.

The initiative brought roughly 76,000 Afghans to the United States, many of whom had worked alongside American troops and diplomats as interpreters and translators.

It has since faced intense scrutiny from Trump and his allies, congressional Republicans and some government watchdogs over gaps in the vetting process and the speed of admissions, even as advocates say it offered a lifeline to people at risk of Taliban reprisals.

Trump described Afghanistan as "a hellhole on earth," and he said his administration would review everyone who entered from the country under President Joe Biden — a measure his administration had already been planning before the incident.

During his remarks, Trump also swung his focus to Minnesota, where he complained about "hundreds of thousands of Somalians" who are "ripping apart that once-great state."

Minnesota has the country's largest Somali community, roughly 87,000 people. Many came as refugees over the years.

The reference to immigrants with no connection to Wednesday's developments was a reminder of the scope of Trump's ambitions to rein in migration.

Administration officials have been ramping up deportations of people in the country illegally, as well as clamping down on refugee admissions.

The focus has involved the realignment of resources at federal agencies, stirring concern about potentially undermining other law enforcement priorities. However, Trump's remarks were a signal that scrutiny of migrants and the nation's borders will only increase.

He said he wants to remove anyone "who does not belong here or does not add benefit to our country." "If they can't love our country, we don't want them," Trump added. Afterward, the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services announced it would indefinitely stop processing all immigration requests for Afghan nationals pending a review of security and vetting protocols. Supporters of Afghan evacuees said they feared that people who escaped danger from the Taliban would now face renewed suspicion and scrutiny.

"I don't want people to leverage this tragedy into a political ploy," said Shawn VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac. He said Wednesday's shooting should not shed a negative light on the tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who have gone through the various legal pathways to resettling in the U.S. and those who await in the pipeline.

Agencies