Washington: The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Thursday announced an immediate suspension of all immigration requests from Afghan nationals, just hours after a targeted attack, allegedly by an individual from Kabul, on National Guard members in Washington, close to the White House.
In a post on X, the agency stated, “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
“The protections and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the statement further read.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump called the attack an “act of terror”.
“This heinous assault was an act of evil and an act of hatred, and an act of terror. It was a crime against our entire nation. It was a crime against humanity,” Trump said while addressing the nation on Wednesday evening (local time).
He added that the suspect in custody is a “foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on earth”, and blamed the previous Biden administration for allowing the attacker to enter the country under refugee status.
Trump also promised to “re-examine every single alien” from Afghanistan who entered the US under the Biden administration.
“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 if they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” he added.
He also announced deployment of an additional 500 troops to “help protect our capital city.”
The shooting happened less than 500 metres away from the White House. Trump was not in the capital and is visiting Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday.
While addressing the media, FBI Director Kash Patel said that the case will be prosecuted at the federal level since “this is an assault on federal law enforcement officers.”
Multiple states have sent Guard personnel to Washington in recent months as part of President Trump’s public-safety crackdown. The mission has since expanded to several other major US cities.
There are approximately 2,400 National Guard troops currently deployed in Washington, which includes around 958 from the DC National Guard and about 1,300 from eight other states.
(IANS)
