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US President Donald Trump has ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under former President Joe Biden's administration and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries, Department of Homeland Security officials said on Thursday.
Officials say the Afghan immigrant suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, DC, on Wednesday entered the US in 2021 under a resettlement programme.
Hours after the shooting, which left the two Guard members in critical condition, US Citizenship and Immigration Services announced the immediate and indefinite suspension of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.
On Thursday, DHS said the Trump administration was expanding that to include a review of all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. The alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a US government file seen by Reuters.
USCIS director Joseph Edlow said in a statement he was also directing a "full-scale, rigorous re-examination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern" at Trump's request.
He did not indicate which countries are considered by the United States to be ones of concern. USCIS referred Reuters to a travel ban Trump imposed in June on citizens of 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Laos, Togo, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, and Turkmenistan.
Trump had already called for the "re-examination" of all Afghan nationals who came to the US under his predecessor, saying that the US needed to take measures to ensure the removal of anyone who does not "add benefit to our country."
Since returning to the White House earlier this year, the president has carried out an aggressive immigration agenda. Reuters reported on Tuesday that his administration had ordered a broad review of all refugees, who entered the US under Biden.
That order would apply to about 233,000 refugees who entered between Jan 20, 2021 and Feb 20, 2025, according to the memo signed by Edlow.
In late October, Trump set the refugee admissions cap for fiscal 2026 at a record-low 7,500, saying the US would focus on bringing in white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity.