Following the tragic death of a National Guard soldier in a Washington DC shooting, US President Donald Trump announced Thursday he would suspend migration from countries he called “third world countries.”
The strong declaration, posted on social media, signaled a sharp escalation in the anti-migration stance of his second term, which already features a mass deportation campaign. On Wednesday, an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guard members, killing 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom of the West Virginia National Guard.
The FBI immediately launched an international terror investigation into the alleged gunman, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Multiple US media reports indicated the Afghan national previously worked with a CIA counterterrorism unit in Afghanistan before traveling to the United States.
Officials described the attack as a brutal “ambush-style” shooting, which instantly brought together the politically volatile issues of immigration, military deployment, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.
Trump later expressed the nation’s grief during a Thanksgiving video call with troops: “I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital.”
Policy and Contradictions
Trump cemented his extreme policy shift, writing on social media, “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the US system to fully recover.” Furthermore, he threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted during his predecessor’s term and promised to “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States.”
Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, instantly ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
The refugee resettlement group AfghanEvac, however, strongly contradicted claims that lax policies allowed the assailant access. They noted Lakanwal received asylum in April 2025 under the Trump administration and underwent “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants. Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, emphasized a necessary broader perspective, stating, “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth responded to the shooting by announcing 500 additional troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total military presence to 2,500.
