The United States said it is halting all immigration requests relating to Afghanistan after an Afghan national shot two members of the National Guard, one of whom died a day after the shooting near the White House.
President Donald Trump said on November 27 that Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds after being shot a day earlier by a suspect identified by the Department of Homeland Security as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed Beckstrom's death in a social media post.
A second National Guard member, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was "fighting for his life," Trump said.
Lakanwal was wounded and is said to be in critical condition after an exchange of gunfire before he was arrested by other National Guard members on November 26.
Trump, who was at his resort in Florida to celebrate Thanksgiving at the time of the attack, has called the shooting "an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror."
Trump said Lakanwal arrived in the United States in September 2021 on one of "those infamous flights" -- a referral to the evacuation of Afghans after the Taliban regained control following the US withdrawal.
He added that his administration would "re-examine" all Afghans who came to the United States during Joe Biden's presidency.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services agency confirmed on X that "effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.
"The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission."
Lakanwal served in the Afghan Army for a decade, supporting US special forces in the war-torn country during that time.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed in a statement that Lakanwal had also worked for the CIA and the US military while in Afghanistan.
Fear of Reprisals
Afghans in the US said they feared the shooting would increase pressure on them, and possibly make them targets for retaliatory attacks.
"I've been in the US for a year as a refugee case and have not yet received a green card, and now I have became very worried," one Afghan who currently lives in California told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi.
"Not only me, but all Afghans here are worried. We are worried that we will be deported or face other problems, because we came here from Afghanistan with great difficulty. There is a lot of danger for us in Afghanistan," the refugee, who asked not to be named, added.
Another refugee who fled to neighboring Pakistan, said the shockwaves from the shooting have reverberated halfway around the world.
"I sold everything I had in Afghanistan and came to Pakistan with my family hoping that our future would change and we would move to America," he said of moving to Islamabad after working with US forces for close to two decades as international forces backed a democratically elected government.
"We did everything we could, but we have been waiting here in a hopeless situation. They should punish one person, not all Afghan refugees for his [the shooter's] actions."
Afghan refugees were already under pressure in the United States after their designation under Temporary Protected Status (TPS) expired on July 14. The change affects an estimated 9,000 to 12,000 Afghans living and working legally in the United States under this program.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the termination of TPS was based on its assessment that conditions in Afghanistan have "improved sufficiently" and no longer meet the statutory requirements for TPS.
National Guard Deployment
The November 26 attack, which took place close to a metro station a few blocks away from the White House, is also expected to put renewed focus on Trump's controversial move to station national guards to several major US cities in a stated attempt to bring down crime rates around the country.
In a response to the shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said another 500 National Guard members would be added to the 2,000 already stationed in the US capital.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser, who has openly clashed with the presidential administration over the deployment of the National Guard in the capital, described the attack as "horrific and unconscionable" and added that the "suspect is in custody for this targeted shooting and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law."
