The United States has suspended the processing of all immigration requests from Afghans after an Afghan man was identified as the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting of National Guard soldiers near the White House, leaving two of them seriously injured, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) confirmed.
USCIS said the decision was made pending a review of “security and vetting protocols.” The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting in DC is believed to have arrived in the United States from Afghanistan in September 2021.
US President Donald Trump called the attack on the National Guard soldiers an “act of terrorism.” He also warned that he would take steps to remove foreigners “from any country who do not belong here.”
An official told NBC News that the identified suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted his application earlier this year.
Newsweek reported that the suspect identified in the attack was Rahmanullah, 29, who came to the United States as part of the Biden-era effort “Operation Allies Welcome.” The resettlement program was designed to rehabilitate Afghans who had assisted US forces.
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After the shooting in the capital, Trump said, “We must now re-examine every single alien (non-citizen) who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden.”
According to a statement from Joint Task Force DC, the National Guard deployment coordinator in the US capital, the attack occurred around 2:15 p.m. local time on Wednesday near the Farragut Square metro station, where soldiers were on a high-visibility patrol at the corner of 17th and 1st streets.