Donald Trump has said he will “permanently stop immigration from all third world countries”, a day after two National Guard members were shot in Washington DC in an attack that has become a political flashpoint in the president’s ongoing crackdown on immigration.
In a social media post starting with “A very nice thank you” sent just after 11pm on Thursday, the US President said his administration would “end all federal benefits and subsidies for non-citizens” and “deport any person who is not a net asset of the United States”.
It is unclear how the President would implement such a “pause” in migration. Previous sanctions issued by his administration have faced challenges in the courts and Congress.
Earlier in the night, Trump announced the death of Sarah Beckstrom, one of two Guard members shot in the attack near the White House on Wednesday. Authorities suspect the shooting was carried out by Rahmanullah Laqanwal, an Afghan national who entered the US in September 2021 under a Biden-era program that evacuated and resettled thousands of people from Afghanistan following the chaotic US withdrawal from the country.
He was granted asylum under the Trump administration in April this year, and on Thursday the CIA confirmed that he had served with military units supported by the agency during the US war in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.
Lakanwal was injured in the attack and is in custody. According to the president, the second National Guard member, Andrew Wolfe, age 24, is still fighting for his life.
The president’s late-night post appears to reflect an escalation of anti-immigrant policies in his second term, which has been dominated by a campaign of mass deportations.
In his post, the president attacked immigrants living in the US and took aim at Somali communities in Minnesota, after last week promising to end Temporary Protected Status for Somalis in the state.
Earlier in the day, Trump had claimed that the shootings in Washington DC remind us that we have no higher national security priority than making sure we have complete control over people entering and staying in our country.
Within 24 hours of the shootings, the President and members of his administration announced sweeping immigration reforms. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced that processing of immigration requests involving Afghan nationals has been suspended indefinitely pending further review.
Later, the Department of Homeland Security said the administration was expanding it to include a review of all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. The department did not clarify whether it was reviewing all asylum cases only from Afghanistan or from other countries as well.
The director of USCIS, Joseph Edlow, said in a statement that he was also directing a “full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern” at Trump’s request.
Edlow’s statement did not specify which countries were considered areas of concern. USCIS pointed to the travel ban imposed by Trump in June on citizens of 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Laos, Togo, Venezuela, Sierra Leone and Turkmenistan.
The travel ban, issued in 2017 during Trump’s first term, was widely criticized and faced legal and popular resistance when Trump tried to implement it soon after taking office. The policy was redrafted by the White House after a lengthy court battle, but was rescinded by Joe Biden in 2021.
National Guard troops have been deployed throughout Washington, D.C., since August, when the Trump administration declared a “crime emergency” and ordered them to support federal and local law enforcement.
Shortly after the shootings on Wednesday, Trump said he would send 500 more National Guard troops to Washington, DC.
A federal judge last week ordered an end to the National Guard deployment, but put his order on hold for 21 days to give the Trump administration time to remove the troops or appeal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
<a href