Jonathan Frederic De Santos

Travelers walk through Boston Logan International Airport. ABS-CBN News, file

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Agence France-Presse

<p>WASHINGTON — The United States is freezing all asylum decisions, officials said Friday, as President Donald Trump hardens his anti-migrant stance after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members this week in Washington.</p><p>Wednesday&#x27;s attack on the soldiers — one of whom died from her injuries — has ignited a fresh crackdown on foreigners in the United States, with Trump also pledging to suspend migration from &quot;third world countries.&quot;</p><p>Joseph Edlow, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said his agency has &quot;halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.&quot;</p><p>That followed Trump&#x27;s announcement late Thursday of plans to &quot;permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/11/27/two-national-guard-soldiers-shot-near-white-house-suspect-in-custody-1108"><strong>Two National Guard soldiers shot near White House, suspect in custody<br/></strong></a></div><p>Asked which nationalities would be affected, the Department of Homeland Security pointed AFP to a list of 19 countries — including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar — already facing US travel restrictions since June.</p><p>Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that the US had temporarily stopped issuing visas to all individuals traveling on Afghan passports.</p><p>&quot;The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,&quot; he said.</p><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;Monster&#x27;</strong></div><p>The shooting has brought together three politically explosive issues: Trump&#x27;s controversial use of the military on American soil, immigration, and the lingering legacy of the 20-year conflict in Afghanistan.</p><p>Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who allegedly opened fire on the guardsmen just a few blocks from the White House, had been part of a CIA-backed &quot;partner force&quot; fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.</p><p>He entered the United States as part of a resettlement program following the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.</p><p>Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for Washington DC, said Friday that Lakanwal would be charged with murder over the attack.</p><p>Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in the US capital as part of what Trump called a crackdown on crime, died from her wounds.</p><p>The second injured soldier, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was &quot;fighting for his life,&quot; Pirro told the Fox News program Fox &amp; Friends.</p><p>Attorney General Pam Bondi has pledged to seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, describing him as a &quot;monster.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/11/28/trump-says-to-permanently-pause-migration-from-all-third-world-countries-1336"><strong>Trump says to &#x27;permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries&#x27;</strong></a></div><div><br/></div><div><strong>&#x27;Long planned&#x27;</strong></div><p>In his social media post Thursday, Trump also threatened to reverse &quot;millions&quot; of admissions granted under his predecessor Joe Biden, in a new escalation of his anti-immigration stance.</p><p>Separately, the USCIS said it would reexamine the green cards — permanent residency cards — issued to individuals who had migrated to the US from the same 19 countries also cited by the Department of Homeland Security.</p><p>More than 1.6 million green card holders, roughly 12 percent of the total permanent resident population, were born in the countries listed, according to US immigration data analyzed by AFP.</p><p>Afghanistan has over 116,000 green card holders.</p><p>Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the country after the military withdrawal, blasted Rubio&#x27;s move to halt all visa issuances.</p><p>&quot;They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned,&quot; he said in a statement.</p><p>Lakanwal had been living in the western state of Washington with his family and drove across the country to the capital before Wednesday&#x27;s shooting, officials said.</p><p>Trump has insisted that Lakanwal had been granted unvetted access to the United States because of lax asylum policies after the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan under former president Biden.</p><p>However, AfghanEvac said the Afghans had undergone &quot;some of the most extensive security vetting&quot; of any migrants. It added that Lakanwal applied for asylum under Biden but received it later, under Trump.</p>

<p>The United States is freezing all asylum decisions, officials said Friday, as President Donald Trump hardens his anti-migrant stance after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members this week in Washington.</p>

The United States is freezing all asylum decisions, officials said Friday, as President Donald Trump hardens his anti-migrant stance after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members this week in Washington.

US halts asylum decisions as troop killing sparks migrant crackdown

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US halts asylum decisions as troop killing sparks migrant crackdown

Agence France-Presse

Published Nov 29, 2025 12:24 PM PHT

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