A major political storm erupted on Thursday night after US President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently pause migration from all third world countries,” following the shooting of two National Guard members near the White House.
The president’s late-night message came just hours after officials confirmed the death of one of the guards.
The announcement was delivered in a long social media post that began with “a very happy Thanksgiving,” but quickly shifted into one of the strongest anti-immigration statements of Trump’s second term.
Moreover, it signaled a sharp escalation in policies that have already involved mass deportations and sweeping security operations across the country.
Trump wrote that his administration would also “end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens” and remove “anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
The message did not specify which countries would be covered under what he called a Trump migration pause, nor did it explain the criteria for determining who qualifies as a “net asset.”
Earlier in the day, Trump confirmed the death of guard member Sarah Beckstrom, who was shot alongside 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe on Wednesday night. Wolfe remains in critical condition.
Authorities have identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021 under a Biden-era evacuation program.
Furthermore, Reuters reported that he received asylum in April, during Trump’s own term, and the CIA confirmed his connection to agency-backed units during the Afghanistan war.
The incident has triggered a wave of rapid-fire policy changes.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has already suspended processing of immigration requests involving Afghan nationals pending further review.
In addition, the Department of Homeland Security announced a wider reassessment of all asylum cases approved during the Biden administration.
It remains unclear whether this review will be limited to Afghan applicants or expanded to other countries.
USCIS director Joseph Edlow said he had initiated a “full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern,” following Trump’s order.
USCIS pointed to a previous travel ban covering 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Togo, Sierra Leone, Laos, Venezuela, Turkmenistan, and Burundi, but did not clarify if the same list would apply now.
However, legal experts warn that imposing a broad Trump migration pause may face significant obstacles.
Previous bans introduced in 2017 sparked widespread criticism and court challenges.
Therefore, it is uncertain whether this new directive can survive similar legal scrutiny.
Meanwhile, Washington DC remains heavily guarded. National guard troops have been stationed across the capital since August after Trump declared a “crime emergency.”
On Wednesday, he ordered an additional 500 guard members to be deployed.
A federal judge recently ruled that the months-long deployment must end, but placed the order on hold for 21 days.
