President Donald Trump has promised a "permanent pause" on migration from what he called "Third World Countries" following a deadly shooting of two National Guard members near the White House, allegedly by an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome. The attack killed 20-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and left 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in critical condition.
On November 26, 2025, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, allegedly shot two recently deployed National Guard members near the White House in Washington, D.C. Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, of the West Virginia National Guard, and 24-year-old U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe were both hospitalized in critical condition after the attack, according to charging documents and officials cited by the Associated Press and other outlets.
Beckstrom died from her injuries the following day, November 27, President Donald Trump announced publicly on Thursday evening. Multiple news organizations, drawing on statements from U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro, report that charges against Lakanwal have since been upgraded to include one count of first-degree murder, in addition to assault and firearms charges.
Pirro has described the incident as an "ambush-style" attack. In an interview on Fox News, she said there were "many more charges to come" and characterized the killing as premeditated, stating there was "an ambush with a gun toward people who didn’t know what was coming," as reported by The Daily Wire and the Associated Press.
Authorities say Beckstrom and Wolfe were deployed from the West Virginia National Guard to Washington, D.C., as part of Trump's crime-fighting initiative in the capital, which includes federalizing the D.C. police force. Pirro said the two soldiers had been sworn in shortly before the shooting and were in Washington "to keep D.C. safe" under a Trump executive order. The Daily Wire, citing Pirro, reported that they were sworn in less than 24 hours before they were shot.
Lakanwal has been identified in multiple reports, including by the Associated Press and Reuters, as a former CIA-linked Afghan operative who worked with so‑called "Zero Units" during the Afghanistan War. According to public records and accounts summarized by Reuters and other outlets, he entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden‑administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Advocacy group #AfghanEvac has said that while Lakanwal applied for asylum during the Biden administration, his asylum was approved earlier this year under Trump.
Trump has blamed Biden-era vetting and admissions for Lakanwal’s presence in the country. In comments following the shooting, he referred to the attack as a "terrorist" act and denounced what he called "millions" of migrants admitted illegally under Biden‑era policies, according to conservative outlet The Daily Wire and other reports.
In a late-night Thanksgiving message posted just after midnight on November 28, Trump used his social media account to call for sweeping new immigration restrictions. According to coverage by Daily Wire and other outlets, he wrote: "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 is incapable of loving our Country." He went on to call for "REVERSE MIGRATION" to address what he described as a crisis fueled by refugee and immigrant inflows.
In the same message, Trump asserted that the United States now houses a "foreign population" of tens of millions and accused many recent arrivals of relying on taxpayer-funded welfare while coming from "failed nations" or from criminal or psychiatric institutions. He singled out Somali refugee communities in Minnesota, claiming that "hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over" the state and alleging that "Somalian gangs" roam the streets "looking for 'prey.'" He also sharply criticized Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Representative Ilhan Omar, language that was widely reported and condemned by critics as inflammatory.
Federal agencies moved quickly after the shooting and Trump’s post. Guidance reviewed by The Daily Wire shows that on November 28 the State Department instructed U.S. diplomatic and consular posts to refuse, under section 221(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act or other applicable grounds, all otherwise eligible Afghan nationals applying for immigrant or nonimmigrant visas using Afghan passports. The directive, which Daily Wire reports covers Special Immigrant Visas and other Afghan visa categories, applies even to some cases that had already been approved but not yet issued, and is described as a temporary measure pending enhanced security vetting.
The Daily Wire also reports that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials have begun a "rigorous" review of green card cases from certain countries of concern, and that the Department of Homeland Security is conducting broad reviews of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. Reuters and other outlets likewise describe a wider administration effort to reexamine Afghan and other migrant cases admitted during and after the 2021 airlift.
These moves build on earlier restrictions. Over the summer, Trump issued a presidential proclamation imposing new travel limits on nationals of several countries, including Afghanistan, with full or partial bans depending on the category of travel, according to reporting from international and U.S. media.
The tougher stance has drawn criticism from human rights advocates and international bodies. United Nations officials have urged the United States to honor its obligations to refugees and asylum seekers under international law and to ensure that any policy changes include fair procedures and individual review, according to Reuters and other coverage. A U.N. human rights spokesperson in Geneva said migrants and asylum seekers remain "entitled to protection under international law" and should receive due process.
Trump’s Thanksgiving message and subsequent actions echo his broader campaign pledges to tighten immigration rules, accelerate deportations, and sharply curtail various humanitarian and family-based admissions. His latest statements come as deportations continue to a range of countries in Africa, Central America, and elsewhere, and as legal challenges mount over his use of executive authority on immigration and the deployment of National Guard personnel in U.S. cities.
