President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he plans to temporarily halt immigration from third-world countries following the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. In a post on Truth Social, the president said the nation has advanced technologically but “Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many,” RedState reported.
President Trump added that the goal is “achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process” and that “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
Before the announcement, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X that it had halted “all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals… indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
Authorities allege that a 29-year-old Afghan national, Rehmanullah Lakanwal, shot two members of the West Virginia National Guard near Farragut Square in downtown Washington.
Officials say he approached the guardsmen while they were on foot patrol near a Metro station and opened fire with a handgun. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, was shot multiple times and later died from her injuries. Air Force Staff Sergeant Andrew Rolfe, 24, was also shot and remains in critical condition.
A third service member who was not hit returned fire and helped stop the attack. Officials say the shooting appears to be an act of radical Islamic terrorism. Investigators say the suspect arrived in the United States after working with U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan. He is now facing first-degree murder charges along with multiple counts of assault with intent to kill, according to published reports.
The Trump administration made headlines recently when it announced that it will significantly reduce the number of refugees the United States will accept in the upcoming fiscal year and prioritize white South Africans, who it says are facing discrimination in their home country.
According to notices published in the Federal Register, the U.S. will admit no more than 7,500 refugees between October 2025 and September 2026. The guidance explicitly states that Afrikaner refugees and other victims of illegal or unjust discrimination in their respective homelands will receive priority.
The new cap marks a sharp reduction from the Biden administration, which admitted roughly 100,000 refugees annually. It also represents the lowest refugee intake since the 1970s, when the limit stood at 17,000 per year. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic under Trump’s first term, the United States accepted at least 11,000 refugees annually, Politico reported.
In a significant procedural shift, the administration announced that oversight of refugee resettlement contracts will move from the State Department to the Office of Refugee Resettlement within the Department of Health and Human Services — a major departure from how the U.S. refugee program has traditionally been managed.
The administration did not provide much of an explanation for the changes in the notice, but did stress the need to conduct refugee resettlement “in a manner that serves the national interest, promotes efficient use of taxpayer dollars, protects the integrity of the United States immigration system, and supports refugees in achieving early economic self-sufficiency and assimilation into American society.”
Under the new structure, ORR will assume full responsibility for working with public and private partners to resettle refugees across the United States and provide financial support for those programs, noted Politico.
