By Robert BirselShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberPresident Donald Trump said everyone who arrived in the U.S. from Afghanistan under the Biden administration must be “reexamined” in light of the Wednesday shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members who were deployed to Washington, D.C.
Why It Matters
Thousands of Afghans arrived in the United States after the Islamist Taliban recaptured the country in 2021, as U.S. forces were withdrawing after two decades of the “war against terrorism” launched after the 9/11 attack on the United States.
Many of the new arrivals had worked with U.S. troops during their two-decade presence in Afghanistan, as interpreters, fixers and in other support capacities, and as a result, faced persecution from the Taliban after they defeated a U.S.-backed Afghan government and seized control of the country.
What To Know
The suspect in the shooting of the two National Guard members near the White House on Wednesday has been identified as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, multiple law enforcement sources told the media.
Lakanwal, who they say entered the U.S. in 2021, was shot, wounded and arrested.
Trump, in a video address on Wednesday night, referred to Afghanistan as “a hellhole on earth” and said “nobody knew who was coming in” to the United States after the Taliban victory in 2021.
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation,” Trump said, referring to the Wednesday shooting.
“We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from the country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” the president added.
Trump said the shooting suspect’s “status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden,” who Trump said let in 20 million “unknown and unfettered” foreigners.
In May 2022, months after the fall of Kabul, then Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas had designated Afghans eligible for temporary protected status (TPS), granting those in the U.S. without legal status protections from deportation and offering work authorization so they could earn a living. Some 8,200 Afghans have benefited from TPS, per National Immigration Forum estimates.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem announced on May 12, 2025, that TPS would be terminated for Afghans, saying that Homeland Security had reviewed conditions in Afghanistan with the help of interagency partners, and determined conditions had improved enough to revoke the temporary protections.
The United Nations and multiple humanitarian organizations still report that Afghanistan is volatile, and that Afghans who fled could likely be targeted upon their return. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans remain scattered in other countries, where they are also seeking asylum.
What People Are Saying
Trump, in his address: “We’re not going to put up with these kinds of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in our country.”
Nasirullah Safi, who worked as an interpreter for the U.S. military for a decade before migrating to the U.S. in 2016 under a Special Immigrant Visa program, to Newsweek in May: "The war has never been ended for these incredible men and women who supported Americans there. It continues, and if they get deported, and if you send them back to the country that's run by a bunch of lunatics, by the Taliban, no doubt that those people would get killed.”
What Happens Next
Trump gave no details about how or when the reexamination of Afghan immigrants would be carried out. Investigators have not determined a motive for the Wednesday shooting in Washington.
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