Federal immigration authorities said Wednesday they have paused processing requests from Afghan nationals, after a man who entered the U.S. from Afghanistan was identified as the suspect in a shooting that wounded two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a statement that the “processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” effective immediately.
The announcement came shortly after the Department of Homeland Security announced publicly that the suspected shooter — who was shot by a Guard member and is now in custody — was a man named Rahmanullah Lakanwal who entered the U.S. in 2021 under a Biden-era initiative for Afghans called Operation Allies Welcome.
President Trump said in remarks following the shooting: “We must now 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.”
The U.S. military evacuated tens of thousands of people from Afghanistan in 2021, as the United States’ two-decade-long war in the country ended with the Taliban returning to power.
Upward of 85,000 Afghans were settled in the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome. In many cases, they were initially housed at military bases and flown to the U.S. after undergoing processing.
Many Afghan nationals qualified for Special Immigration Visas, a type of permanent visa offered to people who were employed by the U.S. government — including military interpreters who often feared retribution from the Taliban for aiding U.S. forces. That program was plagued by years of backlogs, however.
Others from Afghanistan applied for asylum — which is offered to people fleeing persecution — or visas based on being family members of U.S. citizens or green card holders.
And many were granted less permanent protections like humanitarian parole and temporary protected status, putting them in an uncertain situation with no clear pathway to permanent residency unless they qualified for some other immigration status. The Trump administration ended temporary protected status for Afghanistan in July of this year, impacting around 8,000 enrollees.
Members of both political parties have expressed support for assisting Afghans who helped U.S. forces, and the Biden administration emphasized that those who entered the U.S. underwent security vetting beforehand. But some Republican officials have long questioned whether the vetting processes were rigorous or complete enough.
The nonprofit group AfghanEvac condemned Wednesday’s attack in a statement, but urged people “not to demonize the Afghan community for the deranged choice this person made.” The group said immigrants from Afghanistan “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.”
“Those who would twist this moment to attack Afghan families aren’t seeking safety or justice — they’re exploiting division and endangering all of us,” AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said.