US President Donald Trump said his administration will “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World countries”, following an attack on two National Guard members near the White House, as he attributed the assault to Biden-era immigration vetting failures.
Mr Trump did not identify any countries or explain what he meant by a “permanent” pause. He said the plan would include cases approved under former president Joe Biden's administration.
Later on Friday, his administration halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people travelling on Afghan passports.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department paused “visa issuance for ALL individuals travelling on Afghan passports".
Mr Trump said earlier on his social media platform, Truth Social, that he would "permanently pause migration from all Third World countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States".
He had announced that Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her injuries and fellow guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life”, as investigators conducted what officials said was a terrorism probe after Wednesday's shooting.
Ms Beckstrom was shot near the White House in an ambush that investigators say was carried out by an Afghan national.
The suspected gunman has been identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29.
Charges against Mr Lakanwal were upgraded to first-degree murder after Ms Beckstrom's death, the US attorney for the District of Columbia announced on Friday.
The FBI searched several properties in a widening investigation, including a home in Washington state linked to the suspect, who officials said was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before he came to the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.
Agents seized numerous electronic devices from Mr Lakanwal's resident, including mobile phones, laptops and iPads, and interviewed his relatives, FBI director Kash Patel said at a news conference.
Trump-appointed US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the suspect drove cross-country and then ambushed the National Guard members while they were patrolling near the White House on Wednesday afternoon.
“I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation about the terrorist attack in our nation's capital, in which a savage monster gunned down two service members in the West Virginia National Guard, who were deployed as part of the DC Task Force,” Mr Trump said in a Thanksgiving call with US military service members.
Casting blame on the administration of his White House predecessor, President Biden, Mr Trump said the alleged gunman, who he described as having gone “cuckoo”, was among thousands of Afghans who came in unvetted as the US carried out a chaotic withdrawal in 2021. He provided no evidence to support his assertion.
President Trump said the suspect's “atrocity reminds us that we have no greater national security priority than ensuring we have full control over the people who enter and remain in our country”.
Armed with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, the gunman shot Beckstrom and Wolfe before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops. He was in hospital in serious condition, Mr Trump said.
“My baby girl has passed to glory,” Gary Beckstrom, father of the National Guard member who died, wrote on social media, adding that his family were grappling with the “horrible tragedy.” Mr Trump later spoke to Beckstrom's parents over the phone, a White House official said.
Suspected assailant acted alone
The alleged assailant, who lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, appears to have acted alone, said Jeffery Carroll, executive assistant chief of the Washington Metropolitan Police Department.
Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect's wife and five children who live in Washington state, Mr Trump said: “We're looking at the whole situation with family.”
The programme under which the suspect entered the US allowed in more than 70,000 Afghan nationals, according to a congressional report, and was designed with vetting procedures, including by US counterterrorism and intelligence agencies. But the large scale and rushed nature of the evacuations led critics to say the background checks were inefficient.
Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News the US government planned to bring terrorism charges against the gunman and seek a sentence of life in prison “at a minimum”. Following Beckstrom's death, she suggested she would seek the death penalty.
At the press conference, Mr Patel described the shootings as a “heinous act of terrorism”, but neither he nor Ms Pirro offered a possible motive.
- with Reuters
