US will 'reexamine' all Afghan immigrants after shooting of two National Guard members
US President Donald Trump said his administration will reexamine every immigrant from Afghanistan, as the suspected shooter of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, was from the country, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
“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,” Trump said in a televised address from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Wednesday.
“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them," he said.
On Wednesday, the day before the US national holiday of Thanksgiving, a gunman opened fire on National Guard members in Washington, DC, critically injuring two, in what Muriel Bowser, the mayor, called a targeted attack. Jeffery Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Metropolitan Police, described the shooter as a "lone gunman".
The suspect was identified as an Afghan national who had worked with the US government, including the CIA, in Afghanistan.
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The Department of Homeland Security released a statement on Wednesday, naming the suspected shooter as Rahmanullah Lakamal, 29, saying he was “one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the US under Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration”.
However, Reuters reported that the alleged shooter was granted asylum on 23 April 2025 under the Trump administration after a vetting process which found nothing that would disqualify him. Lakamal had no criminal record in Washington State, where he lived, according to the report.
OAW was a Biden initiative that supported the resettlement of Afghans after the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, including those who had worked with or on behalf of the US there.
US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, identified the two National Guard members as Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe, both in their twenties and from West Virginia. They remain in critical condition after having surgery.
Paramilitary force
CIA director John Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital that Lakamal had worked for an Afghan unit that was trained and supported by the CIA in a Taliban-controlled area.
“In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” Radcliffe said.
Lakanwal belonged to a CIA-supported "Zero Unit" paramilitary force that worked with the US and other partner forces. According to a New York Times report, the members were purportedly trained to assassinate Taliban members during nighttime raids inside enemy territory. Human Rights groups labelled them “death squads”.
The New York Times quoted an unidentified childhood friend of Lakanwal saying that he had suffered from “mental health issues and was disturbed by the casualties his unit had caused”.
Lankawal is alleged to have driven to the Capitol to carry out the shooting.
The National Guard, which forms part of the US Armed Forces, have been deployed in Washington, DC, since August as part of a Trump initiative to crack down on crime and homelessness.
Reports say that more than 2,000 National Guard soldiers were deployed in the city at the time of the shooting. An additional 500 soldiers were deployed after the shooting.
The deployment of National Guard members has faced legal challenges and criticism, as well as condemnation from Bower, the current mayor, who said the two victims of the attack should have been at home with their families.
Immigration crackdown
The Trump administration was already cracking down on immigration before Wednesday's shooting.
Earlier this week, CNN reported that the Trump administration was planning to reinterview potentially tens of thousands of refugees who were admitted to the US under the Biden administration.
Afghans have been at the centre of the Trump administration's efforts to curb immigration.
In May, the Trump administration eliminated the OEW programme and the Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts, which supported the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) for Afghans.
While the Trump administration has not officially ended SIV processing, the moves have drastically slowed processing for around 160,000 applicants.
A federal court ordered the government to expedite processing of the longest-delayed SIV applications, but the Trump administration has indicated its intent to appeal.
The administration also stripped Afghans of so-called Temporary Protected Status earlier this summer, leaving more than 11,000 Afghans who are in the US stuck in legal limbo.
The Taliban have governed Afghanistan since the US's 2021 withdrawal from the country and the collapse of a US-backed government there.
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