Trump’s Immigration Halt Following National Guard Shooting
Late Thursday, President Donald Trump declared that his administration would “permanently halt” immigration from all “Third World countries.” This announcement came after a tragic incident where two National Guard soldiers were shot by Afghan individuals near the White House, resulting in one soldier’s death.
Twenty-year-old West Virginia Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries from an attack on Wednesday. She and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolf were targeted in an assault by Rahmanullah Rakanwar, an Afghan national who entered the U.S. in September 2021 post-American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Wolf remains in critical condition.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump stated, “To fully restore the American system, I will permanently end immigration from all third world countries, end all illegal entry of millions of Bidens, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net worth of America or incapable of loving our country.”
He further mentioned plans to cut off federal benefits for non-citizens deemed to be “destroying domestic tranquility,” posing national security risks, or incompatible with Western civilization.
The suspect, who reportedly shouted “Allah Akbar!” before opening fire, had connections with U.S. government agencies, including the CIA. He arrived in the U.S. through the Biden administration’s Operation Welcoming Allies, designed to resettle Afghans who assisted U.S. forces. There are reports that he applied for asylum in 2024, which was granted the following year.
Since the U.S. withdrawal in August 2021, over 180,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. as of December 2024.
Trump criticized the situation, saying, “Hundreds of thousands of people entered our country completely unvetted and unchecked. We will fix it, but we will never forget what crooked Joe Biden and his thugs did to our country!”
In light of the shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would “indefinitely” suspend processing immigration applications for Afghan nationals. Additionally, USCIS indicated a comprehensive review of all green cards issued to individuals from 19 “countries of concern” would be conducted to evaluate “country-specific negative factors,” including the reliability of identification documents.
