Trump vows immigration crackdown following DC shooting of National Guard members

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump renewed his pledge to crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital.

The White House posted a video Wednesday evening in which Trump called the shooting an “act of hatred,” and noted the alleged suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was among hundreds flown to the U.S. during and after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 during the Biden administration.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem posted on X that the suspect entered the U.S. “under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021.” It wasn’t clear whether the flight was part of the evacuation or resettlement process. Officials have confirmed Lakanwal worked for the CIA and the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Trump railed against immigrants and those fleeing war-torn countries, calling for the reexamination of all Afghan immigrants admitted under Biden.

“This attack underscores the greatest national security threat facing our nation,” he said. “The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t even want to know about. No country can tolerate such a risk to our very survival.”

“We must now re-examine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country, who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country we don’t want them,” he added.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced Wednesday evening that it had paused immigration applications from Afghans.

“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency said in an X post.

While Trump was quick to blame Biden, Lakanwal applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025, under Trump’s second administration.

Groups that have supported Afghan nationals pushed back against the administration’s actions.

Richard Bennett, the U.N. special Rapporteur for human rights in Afghanistan, said Thursday that “the perpetrator should face accountability but the entire Afghan community must not be punished due to the actions of one individual.”

“That would be terribly unjust and complete nonsense,” he said.

Shawn VanDiver, the president of Afghan Evac, an organization that helps Afghans immigrate, also condemned the suspect but called on leaders to “not demonize the Afghan community for the deranged choice this person made.”

“Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the United States undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country,” he said in a statement.

The president on Wednesday night went on to attack Somalis living in Minnesota, which comes in the wake of his decision to once again attempt to terminate temporary protected status (TPS) for Somalis living in the state.

“An example is Minnesota, where hundreds of thousands of Somalians are ripping off our country and ripping apart that once great state. Billions of dollars are lost and gangs of Somalians come from a country that doesn’t even have a government, no laws, no water, no military, no nothing as their representatives in our country preach to us about our Constitution and how our country is no good,” Trump alleged.

“We’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country,” he added.

In the past, Democrats and immigration advocates have pushed back against the president’s immigration restrictions, including on asylum seekers, contending that he has exaggerated national security concerns and turned away millions of families in need.

“It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community. This is what he does to change the subject,” Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said in a social media post this week after Trump announced he was ending TPS protections for Somali nationals.

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