The Trump administration said Thursday it will be conducting a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of all green cards for every immigrant from “a country of concern” in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. An Afghan national who arrived in the U.S. in 2021 has been arrested as a suspect in Wednesday’s attack.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said Thursday that the order had come at the request of President Trump. Two Homeland Security officials told CBS News there are 19 countries on that list, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Venezuela.
Two members of the West Virginia National Guard, Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot Wednesday near the White House in what authorities described as an “ambush-style attack.” Authorities said Thursday that Beckstorm and Wolfe are hospitalized in critical condition.
Lakanwal was shot Wednesday by a member of the National Guard, ending the attack, authorities said. He faces three counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, and he will also be charged with possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Thursday. The charges could still change pending the condition of the guard members.
The Department of Homeland Security identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who authorities said was paroled into the U.S. in 2021 under a Biden-era program for Afghan nationals called Operation Allies Welcome. The CIA confirmed Thursday that Lakanwal had worked with the agency in Afghanistan.
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to CBS News on Thursday that the agency is now reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration.
It’s unclear how wide-ranging Homeland Security’s review of the asylum policies will be. The Trump administration ordered an unprecedented review and rescreening of all refugees admitted to the U.S. under the Biden administration earlier this month. Refugees and asylum-seekers have to meet the same legal definition, but arrive in the U.S. under different circumstances.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021, and his asylum case was granted earlier this year, while Mr. Trump was in office, a Homeland Security official told CBS News. In her statement, McLaughlin appeared to blame the shooting suspect’s approval on a Biden-era court settlement that required the federal government to expedite the processing of Afghan asylum cases.
Since the shooting, the Trump administration had already paused all immigration processing requests from Afghan nationals. An estimated 85,000 Afghans were settled in the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome after the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan. In many cases, they were initially housed at military bases and flown to the U.S. after undergoing processing.
Mr. Trump posted a video on social media on Wednesday night addressing the shooting, calling it an “act of evil and an act of hatred and an act of terror. It was a crime against our entire nation. It was a crime against humanity.”
Mr. Trump also noted that the suspect had come to the U.S. under the Biden-era program and vowed to “reexamine 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.”
“No country can tolerate such a risk to our country,” Mr. Trump added, while pivoting to discussing Somali immigrants in Minnesota.
Earlier this week, CBS News reported that the Trump administration directed immigration officials to review the cases of refugees admitted under former President Joe Biden, as part of an unprecedented effort to identify potential reasons that would disqualify them from being able to stay in the U.S.
