Trump vows to suspend ‘third world’ migration after shooting near White House

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday his administration will “permanently pause” migration from all “third world countries,” following the death of a National Guard member in an attack near the White House.

The comments mark a further escalation of migration measures Trump has ordered since the shooting on Wednesday that investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.

Trump did not identify any countries by name or explain what he meant by third-world countries or “permanently pause”. He said the plan would include cases approved under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

This combination of undated pictures shows National Guard members Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe (L) and Specialist Sarah Beckstrom. AFP

“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.

‘NON-COMPATIBLE WITH WESTERN CIVILISATION’

Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “non-citizens,” adding he would “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilisation.”

Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said on Thursday he had ordered a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.” His agency later pointed to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — facing US travel restrictions under a previous order from Trump in June.

More than 1.6 million US green card holders, roughly 12 per cent of the total permanent resident population, were born in the countries listed, according to the latest immigration data available on the agency’s “Eligible to Naturalise Dashboard” analysed by AFP.

Residents bring flags for a makeshift memorial set up near the White House after two National Guard members were shot in Washington. Reuters

Cuba accounts for the largest share, with about 560,000 green card holders, followed by Haiti (235,000) and Venezuela (153,000).

Afghanistan, which has over 116,000 green card holders, is also affected by a total halt of immigration application processing, ordered by the Trump administration after the shooting.

‘KEEP DOORS OPEN TO ASYLUM SEEKERS’

UN agencies appealed to Washington to continue allowing asylum seekers access to the country and to be given due process. “We expect all countries, including the United States, to honour their commitments under the 1953 Refugee Convention,” Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general, told Reuters.

Asked to respond to Trump’s remarks, UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing: “They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process.” UN refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun echoed those remarks. “When people who need protection arrive in their territory, they have to have a due process of asylum. And then they have to have access to territory,” she said, adding that the overwhelming majority of refugees are law-abiding members of the host community.

“So we really want to appeal at this point to the states who are hosting refugees and asylum seekers,” she said.

Trump’s remarks followed the death on Thursday of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was shot in the ambush. Fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe,24, was “fighting for his life”, Trump said.

Earlier, officials from the Department of Homeland Security said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under Biden’s administration and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.

The alleged gunman, identified by officials as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a US government file seen by Reuters.

He entered the US in a resettlement programme set up by Biden after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the country’s takeover by the Taliban.

In a separate post prior to his “permanently pause” announcement, Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people poured into the US totally “unvetted and unchecked” during what he described as the “horrendous” airlift from Afghanistan.

The US Citizenship and Immigration Services on Wednesday stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.

TRUMP PUSHES REVERSE MIGRATION

Trump indicated that his administration’s goals are aimed at significantly reducing “illegal and disruptive populations”, suggesting that measures would be taken to achieve this outcome.

“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”

Even though Lakanwal was in the country legally, the incident bolsters Trump’s immigration agenda. Cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration has been a key focus of his presidency, and this case gave him an opportunity to broaden the debate beyond legality to include stricter vetting of immigrants.

Agencies