Newsman: President Donald Trump renewed his pledge to crackdown on immigration following the shooting of two National Guard members in the nation’s capital.
President Trump calls National Guard shooting ‘act of evil.’ In an address Wednesday night, Trump called the shooting “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” adding, “It was a crime against our entire nation.”
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.
Trump railed against immigrants and those fleeing war-torn countries, calling for the reexamination of all Afghan immigrants admitted under Biden.
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.
The White House
“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.
Authorities are holding an Afghan national in connection with the ambush shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members near the White House in Washington, DC, an assault that is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism.
The Nov. 26 attack left both the National Guard members in critical condition, according to FBI Director Kash Patel.
Kash Patel said at a news conference that the FBI will work with the D.C. police, Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies on the investigation. “We have assembled the full force of both the federal and state and local law enforcement agencies,” he said.
The suspect was shot moments after the attack and is described as a “lone gunman” by Jeffery Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police Department. Mayor Muriel Bowser called the attack a “targeted shooting.”
The identity of the suspect has not been made public by law enforcement officials.
President Donald Trump said in a speech from Palm Beach, Florida that the that the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect entered into the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021 but did not identify the suspect.
Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021 on a special visa program for Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and were vulnerable to reprisals from the ruling Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal, the official told Reuters. But Lakanwal overstayed his visa and is in the country illegally, the official said.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on X that the suspect came into the country under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021 but did not name the suspect, saying that “should be starved of the glory he so desperately wants.”
The attack occurred outside a subway station in the heart of the nation’s capital and prompted the White House and other government buildings to lock down after the shooting. President Donald Trump, who was at Mar-A-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida at the time of the shooting, said the suspect was an “animal” and would pay “a steep price” in a social media post.
