U.S. President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his administration will “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World countries” following the death of a National Guard member in an attack near the White House.
The move represents a further escalation of migration restrictions Trump has pursued since Wednesday’s shooting, which authorities say was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 under a resettlement program.
Trump did not specify which countries he considered “third-world” or clarify what he meant by a “permanent pause.” He said the plan would also apply to cases approved under former President Joe Biden’s administration.
“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-era admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.
Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “noncitizens,” adding that he would “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilization.”
The White House and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Trump’s remarks followed the death Thursday of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom, 20, who was shot in the ambush. Fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, is “fighting for his life,” Trump said.
Earlier, officials from the Department of Homeland Security said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under Biden’s administration and green cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.
The alleged gunman, identified by officials as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file seen by Reuters.
He entered the U.S. in a resettlement program established by Biden after the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, which led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the Taliban takeover.
In a separate post prior to his “permanent pause” announcement, Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people entered the U.S. “unvetted and unchecked” during what he described as the “horrendous” airlift from Afghanistan.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Wednesday stopped processing all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Trump indicated that his administration’s goal is to significantly reduce “illegal and disruptive populations,” suggesting measures would be taken to achieve that outcome.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation,” he said.
Although Lakanwal was in the country legally, the incident bolsters Trump’s immigration agenda. Cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration has been a key focus of his presidency, and this case gave him an opportunity to broaden the debate beyond legality to include stricter vetting of immigrants.
Trump has already deployed additional immigration officers to major U.S. cities to achieve record deportation levels, including many long-term residents and individuals with no criminal record.
Over two-thirds of the roughly 53,000 people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and detained as of Nov. 15 had no criminal convictions, according to ICE statistics.
