U.S. President Trump on Thursday announced that he would suspend migration from what the US leader described as “third world countries”, a day after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard soldiers in Washington, killing one.
His angry post, which also threatened to undo “millions” of admissions made under Joe Biden, his predecessor, signalled a fresh escalation in Trump’s anti-immigration position during his second term, which has been dominated by his campaign of mass deportations.
U.S. President Trump had earlier announced that Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in Washington as part of his crackdown on crime, had died from her wounds.
As additional information about the alleged gunman—a 29-year-old Afghan national who had served with US forces in Afghanistan—came to light, the FBI opened an international terror investigation.
The shooting on Wednesday, which officials described as an “ambush-style” attack, brings together three politically explosive issues: US President Trump’s controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” Trump wrote on social media.
He also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under his predecessor Joe Biden, and to “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
“If they weren’t effective, you probably wouldn’t have had this done,” he said, adding, “Maybe this man was upset because he couldn’t practice crime.”
Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said Thursday that he had ordered a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
Later, his department cited a list of 19 nations, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, and Myanmar, that were subject to travel restrictions in the US due to a prior June directive from Trump.
Earlier, the Trump administration had issued an order to immediately stop processing immigration applications from Afghanistan.
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