US halts all asylum decisions after shooting of National Guard members

BELLINGHAM, Wash. (AP) — The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions and paused issuing visas for people traveling on Afghan passports, seizing on the National Guard shooting in the nation’s capital to intensify efforts to rein in legal immigration.

The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting near the White House that killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, both of the West Virginia National Guard, is facing charges including first-degree murder. Investigators are seeking to find a motive for the attack.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal is a 29-year-old Afghan national who had been living in Bellingham, Washington, about 80 miles (130 kilometers) north of Seattle. He worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and was granted it this year under President Donald Trump, according to a group that assists with resettlement of Afghans who helped U.S. forces in their country.

The Republican administration is promising to pause entry to the United States from some poor nations and review Afghans and other legal migrants already in the country.

The two service members were deployed as part of Trump’s crime-fighting mission in the District of Columbia. Trump has sent or tried to deploy National Guard members to other cities to assist with his mass deportation efforts but has faced court challenges.

The office of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in Washington, D.C., said the charges against Lakanwal also include two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed. There were “many changes to come,” she told Fox News.

Asylum decisions halted

Trump said the shooting was a “terrorist attack” and he criticized the Biden administration for enabling entry to the U.S. by Afghans who had worked with American forces.

The director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, Joseph Edlow, said in a post on the social platform X that asylum decisions will be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Experts say the U.S. has rigorous systems to conduct background checks of asylum-seekers. Asylum claims made from inside the country through USCIS have long faced backlogs. Critics say the slowdown has been exacerbated under the Republican administration.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his department has paused “visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports.”

Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group #AfghanEvac, said in response: “They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”

The suspect

Lakanwal lived in Bellingham with his wife and five children, former landlord Kristina Widman said.

Neighbor Mohammad Sherzad said Lakanwal was polite and quiet and spoke little English. Sherzad said he attended the same mosque as Lakanwal and heard from other members that he was struggling to find work. He said Lakanwal “disappeared” about two weeks ago.

The mosque condemned the shootings. “The Islamic Society of Whatcom County is deeply saddened and shaken by the heinous attack in Washington, D.C. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and all those impacted. We condemn this act unequivocally,” the mosque said in a statement Saturday afternoon.

The statement went on to say that the mosque is cooperating with the FBI, but that members didn’t know the suspect very well, saying he was “not an integrated part of our community. Like any house of worship, our doors were open to those who wished to pray alongside us,” the statement said, adding that the shootings “do not represent our faith,” and that “no community should be judged by the conduct of a single person.”

Lakanwal worked briefly this summer as an independent contractor for Amazon Flex, which lets people use their own cars to deliver packages, according to a company spokesperson.

Investigators were executing warrants in Washington state and other parts of the country.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program that resettled Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal, officials said. Lakanwal applied for asylum during that administration, but his asylum was approved this year under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.

Lakanwal served in a CIA-backed Afghan Army unit, known as one of the special Zero Units, in the southern province of Kandahar, according to a resident of the eastern province of Khost who identified himself as Lakanwal’s cousin and spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

The man said Lakanwal started out working for the unit as a security guard in 2012 and was later promoted to become a team leader and a GPS specialist.

Beckstrom ‘exemplified leadership, dedication’

Beckstrom enlisted in 2023 after graduating high school and served with distinction as a military police officer with the 863rd Military Police Company, the West Virginia National Guard said.

“She exemplified leadership, dedication, and professionalism,” the guard said in a statement, adding that Beckstrom volunteered for the deployment in Washington.

There was a moment of silence Saturday for Beckstrom and Wolfe before West Virginia University’s football game against Texas Tech in Morgantown.

More troops headed to the nation’s capital

The administration has ordered 500 more National Guard members to the nation’s capital. An Army spokesperson said several governors were planning to support the operation and that specific troop announcements would come from their offices. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the president had asked him to send the troops.

Nearly 2,200 troops are currently assigned to the joint task force that has operated in the city since August, according to the government’s latest update.

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Binkley and Finley reported from Washington, D.C. Associated Press journalists John Raby, Gary Fields, Stephen Groves, Sarah Brumfield, Siddiqullah Alizai, Elena Becatoros, Randy Herschaft and Hallie Golden contributed to this report.