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The suspect accused of critically wounding two National Guard members in a shooting near the White House on Wednesday entered the United States in 2021 through a refugee program for people fleeing Afghanistan, officials said.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed on social media that the suspect had entered from Afghanistan in September 2021 under a Biden-era program called Operation Allies Welcome, which provided entry to Afghan nationals fleeing the Taliban takeover of their country after the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The Trump administration pauses immigration from Afghanistan.
The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it had stopped processing immigration applications from Afghanistan, hours after officials in Washington detained an Afghan man they said had shot two National Guard troops near the White House.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, which oversees U.S. immigration, made the announcement on social media late Wednesday. The two Guard members from West Virginia were in critical condition after a 29-year-old man from Afghanistan shot them, officials said. The man, who was also injured, entered the United States in 2021 under a Biden-era immigration program for Afghans leaving their country after the government fell to the Taliban.
The pause on immigration applications from Afghan nationals will affect a number of Afghans who worked for the U.S. government or NATO forces during the 20-year war in Afghanistan. They are eligible to apply for what’s known as a Special Immigrant Visa, but the Trump administration’s recent curbs on immigration have left many of them in limbo – either stranded in third countries or forced into hiding in Afghanistan.Representatives for the Taliban administration in Afghanistan did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the shooting or the suspension of immigration applications from Afghan nationals. In recent months, Afghan officials have said they were ready to discuss the repatriation of Afghan nationals with the United States and other countries.
Before the shooting, some troops and officials worried about the Guard’s safety.
The shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., shocked Americans on Wednesday, but not everyone was surprised.
“I knew this would happen,” a member of the California National Guard texted The New York Times as news spread, speaking on condition of anonymity because he did not have authority to comment publicly.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced on social media that it had paused immigration applications from Afghan nationals. “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency said on X.Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, a coalition of groups helping Afghans immigrate, said in a statement that the organization supports the shooter “facing full accountability and prosecution under the law.” But he urged that the shooting “not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” pointing out that Afghans seeking to settle in the United States “undergo some of the most extensive security vetting of any population entering the country.”
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