The Trump administration announced dramatically restricted immigration processing after an Afghan national allegedly killed one National Guard member and left another in critical condition.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration and Services (USCIS) is completely halting all asylum decisions until it can “ensure” every foreign national is properly vetted to the fullest extent possible, the agency’s director, Joe Edlow, announced Friday. The decision is the latest move by the Trump administration after Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan man seeking asylum who entered the U.S. in 2021, allegedly shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday.
“USCIS has halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible,” Edlow announced on social media. “The safety of the American people always comes first.”
As of August 2025, there were more than 2,271,000 immigrants who filed formal asylum applications and were waiting for their hearings or decisions, according to Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse.
Just hours after the Wednesday shooting, USCIS declared the processing of all immigration requests pertaining to Afghan nationals would be “stopped indefinitely.” Edlow then said Thursday he’d been directed by President Donald Trump to initiate a “full scale” re-examination of every single green card for foreign nationals hailing from countries of concern.
At the same time, USCIS listed 19 “high-risk” countries identified by the White House, including Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Trump vowed Thursday to implement even tougher measures, declaring his administration would “permanently pause” immigration from Third World countries.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries [sic] to allow the U.S. 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, or is incapable of loving our Country,” the president wrote in a Truth Social post.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” he continued.
Lakanwal allegedly used a revolver to shoot West Virginia Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe near the Farragut West Metro Station in Washington. Beckstrom ultimately died from her injuries while Wolfe reportedly remains in critical condition at the time of publication.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed Lakanwal arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s “Operation Allies Welcome,” an evacuation effort which brought in Afghan nationals who purportedly helped the U.S. during its military occupation of the country. The suspected terrorist submitted an application for asylum in 2024 which was granted in April 2025.
Lakanwal — charged with three counts of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence and two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed — now faces first-degree murder charges, U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro announced Friday.
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