WASHINGTON, DC (Kashmir English): The United States on Friday announced the halt of issuing visas and asylum decisions to people traveling on Afghan passports, days after one of the US National Guard soldiers died and another was wounded in a shooting near the White House.
One victim, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died on Thursday; 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition. President Donald Trump called the shooting a “terrorist attack” during a Thanksgiving call with service members.
In a statement on X, the US Department of State said that it has “immediately paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”
“The Department is taking all necessary steps to protect U.S. national security and public safety,” it wrote.
Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said in a statement that his agency had “halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
“The safety of the American people always comes first,” Edlow wrote on X.
It came after an Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, was identified as the suspected shooter in an attack that killed a National Guard member and wounded another near the White House on Wednesday.
Lakanwal arrived in the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme for Afghans who assisted US forces and later obtained asylum. The US media said that the Lakanwal was part of the “Zero Units”, a CIA-backed Afghan paramilitary force.
Trump escalated his immigration rhetoric late on Thursday, vowing on social media to permanently pause migration from all “Third World Countries,” end “millions of Biden illegal admissions,” and “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
He did not clarify which countries he considered “Third World,” echoing the broad travel restrictions he pursued in his first term, which courts narrowed.
On Friday, Trump also declared he was rescinding any document Biden signed using an autopen, a tool routinely used by presidents.
