The United States will re-examine “all green cards for all foreign nationals from all countries,” something the Trump administration is raising after two National Guard soldiers were shot and seriously wounded by an Afghan immigrant in Washington.
The Director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said on Thursday (27) that “at the direction of the President” he ordered a complete re-examination of the existing documents. On Wednesday night (26), the agency announced the suspension of processing all immigration applications related to Afghan citizens.
President Donald Trump called the shooting near the White House an “act of terrorism” and said the suspect, Rehmanullah Lakkanwal, who worked with the CIA in Afghanistan, came to the United States from the Middle Eastern country in 2021. The announced actions come after the president asked the government to reexamine the cases of Afghans who entered the country during Democrat Joe Biden’s term.
“We must take all necessary steps to ensure that any foreigner who does not belong here or who does not bring benefits to our country is expelled from any country. If they cannot love our country, we don’t want them,” Trump said.
In Thursday’s announcement, Edlow also reiterated the president’s statement by saying that “the American people will not bear the cost of the previous administration’s reckless resettlement policies.” According to him, “the safety of Americans is non-negotiable.” In parallel with the decisions related to immigration, US Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that she would demand the death penalty for the suspect.
The Attorney General in the US capital, Jeanine Pirro, reported that the 29-year-old Afghan lived in Washington state, on the other side of the country’s capital, and that he arrived at the scene of the shooting by car.
He faces charges of assault with intent to murder. If either of the two injured soldiers died, the suspect would also be charged with premeditated murder, Biro said. “He chose the wrong target, the wrong city, the wrong country,” the prosecutor added.
FBI Director Kash Patel joined Pirro and said the Biden administration did not conduct adequate background checks or investigations into Lakkanwal before allowing him to enter the United States in 2021. Neither provided evidence to support that claim.
Lakhanwal was allowed to enter the United States improperly because “the previous administration made the decision to allow thousands of people to enter this country without a single background check or investigation,” Patel said. Al-Afghani cooperated with US government forces, including the CIA, during the war in his country.
The Operation Welcoming Allies program, which has allowed more than 70,000 Afghan citizens to enter the United States, according to a congressional report, was designed with vetting procedures, including by U.S. counterterrorism and intelligence agencies. But the large-scale and hasty nature of the evacuations has led critics to say the inspections have been ineffective.
Although Trump and members of his cabinet blame Biden for the alleged screening failure, the suspect was granted asylum in the country this year, which is already under the Republican government, according to a document obtained by Reuters news agency.
In the program that Lakhanwal was part of, Afghan evacuees to the United States were given a two-year “conditional release” that allowed them to live and work legally and later apply for permanent residency.
The document analyzed by Reuters shows that the suspect requested asylum in December 2024 and was approved on April 23 of this year, three months after Trump took office. He had no known criminal record, according to a government official interviewed by the agency.
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “This animal would not be here if it were not for Joe Biden’s dangerous policies, which allowed countless uninvestigated criminals to invade our country and harm the American people.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed in a statement that Lakanwal worked with local units supported by the spy agency in Afghanistan. “The Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 because of his previous work with the US government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar (south of the country), which ended shortly after the chaotic evacuation,” Ratcliffe said, referring to the withdrawal of US forces from the Middle Eastern country. He added: “This person – and many others – should not have been allowed to come here.”
Although Lakanwal was in the country legally, Trump used the incident as another piece in his anti-immigration narrative. The president made the suppression of illegal immigrants a major focus of his term. According to analysts, Lakanwal’s case could give him an opportunity to expand the debate beyond legality and deny entry to more people.