The United States has frozen all decisions on asylum applications, officials said on Friday, as President Donald Trump hardened his anti-migrant stance following the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House in Washington this week, AFP reported.
One of the soldiers, Sarah Beckstrom, died of her injuries on Thursday. The second person is being treated in hospital. The attack has ignited a fresh crackdown on foreign nationals in the country.
On Thursday, Trump said that he would “permanently pause migration from all third-world countries”.
On Wednesday, the US immigration authorities paused the processing of all immigration requests from Afghan citizens after a man, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the country from Afghanistan in 2021, was identified as the suspect in the shooting.
Lakanwal was granted asylum in April under the Trump administration. He was among the tens of thousands of Afghans who arrived in the US under a programme named Operation Allies Welcome, which was launched by the Joe Biden administration following the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
Many had worked with American forces and qualified for Special Immigrant Visas, though that programme had long suffered from severe backlogs.
On Friday, Joseph Edlow, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that his agency had “halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”, AFP reported.
The Department of Homeland Security said that Trump’s order to “pause migration from third world countries” would apply to nationals from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar, already subject to US travel restrictions since June, AFP reported.
Separately, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday that the United States had temporarily stopped issuing visas to all individuals travelling on Afghan passports.
“The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people,” AFP quoted him as saying.
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