President Donald Trump said that the United States will “permanently pause” all immigration from “third-world countries” and pursue a policy of “reverse migration” in response to the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
Trump’s social media post on immigration followed his announcement of the death of Sarah Beckstrom, one of the two guard members shot in the attack close to the White House on Wednesday. Beckstrom, a National Guard member from West Virginia, was 20 years old.
Federal officials have said that Wednesday’s attack on the two troops near the White House was carried out by an Afghan national, Rahmanulla Lakanwal, who worked with a CIA-backed group during the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Records indicate that Lakanwal entered the U.S. in September 2021 following the evacuation from Afghanistan.
Trump posted shortly after the announcement of Beckstrom’s death that his administration would take steps to deport foreign nationals who are “non-compatible with Western Civilization.”
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. 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, or who is incapable of loving our Country,” Trump posted.
Trump also said that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
When asked about which countries constituted “third-world” in light of Trump’s announcement, Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred the Washington Examiner to the 19 countries listed in Trump’s June Executive Order restricting the entry of foreign nationals from dangerous countries. That list includes Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, and Venezuela, among others.
The president also said he would “end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country” and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility.”
Exactly how this would be carried out is unclear, as it is likely to receive significant pushback from the courts and Congress.
Trump on Thursday afternoon also directed the federal agency that oversees legal immigration into the U.S. to conduct reviews of green card holders from the 19 countries of concern.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow posted on X Thursday that the president directed him to conduct “a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” wrote Edlow.
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McCaughlin said in a statement that Lakanwal was paroled into the US by the Biden Administration. Following a court settlement in September 2023, USCIS was bound to adjudicate all Afghan asylum claims on an expedited basis.
Records indicate that Lakanwal was granted asylum this April, but McCaughlin said that, regardless of his asylum status, he would not have been removed from the country because of his parole status.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” McCaughlin said in the statement. “The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration, which failed to vet these applicants on a massive scale.”
The Washington Examiner contacted the White House for more details.
