US suspends immigration requests for Afghans after National Guard shooting
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced that the United States is suspending processing of all immigration requests for Afghan citizens pending a review of its “security and investigative protocols.”
“The protection and security of our homeland and the American people remains our sole focus and mission,” the agency said in a post about X.
The decision came after two National Guard soldiers were seriously injured in a shooting near the White House. The alleged gunman was stated to be an Afghan citizen who entered the United States in September 2021.
US President Donald Trump said the attack was an “act of terrorism”, adding that he would take steps to remove foreigners from “any country that does not belong here”.
Tens of thousands of Afghans entered the United States under special immigration protections following a chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country in 2021 under former President Joe Biden.
Multiple law enforcement sources had previously told BBC’s US partner CBS that the alleged gunman was Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan citizen who entered the country as part of the Operation Welcome Allies programme.
In his statement after the attack, Trump said, “The United States must now re-examine every alien entering our country from Afghanistan under the Biden administration.”
The latest order comes on top of Trump’s US travel ban on citizens of Afghanistan and 11 other countries earlier this year.
Afghan citizens with Special Immigration Visas, which were offered to those working directly with the U.S. military before the Taliban took back control of the country in 2021, were among the few exceptions to the sweeping bans.
Earlier this year, Trump also ended a program that provided deportation protection to thousands of people from Afghanistan.
The temporary protected status program allowed immigrants to obtain work permits if the U.S. government deemed it unsafe for them to return to their home countries due to war.
