Two members of the United States National Guard from West Virginia have been shot while on duty in Washington, DC, close to the White House. Authorities say the two service members have been seriously injured and are in critical condition.
A suspect taken into custody after Wednesday’s shooting was reported to be an Afghan national.
In response to the shooting, President Donald Trump said his administration must now re-examine every immigrant who has entered the US from Afghanistan during the administration of his predecessor President Joe Biden.
What happened in Washington, DC?
On Wednesday afternoon, the day before Thanksgiving, two National Guard members were shot a few blocks away from the White House.
The soldiers were taken to hospital and remain in critical condition, according to FBI Director Kash Patel and Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser.
In August, Trump deployed federal troops, including National Guard members, to Washington, DC, to combat crime in a federal takeover of the city.
Who is the suspect?
The suspect has been identified in media reports as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national. The identity of the suspect was confirmed by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which spelled his surname as Lakamal. He was shot and injured by law enforcement responding to the attack.
The suspect sustained wounds that were described as not being life threatening, The Associated Press news agency reported, quoting an anonymous law enforcement official who had not been authorised to publicly discuss the matter.
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The DHS said he arrived in the US in 2021 through the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome programme.
The Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August 2021 as the US withdrew its forces there and then-President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.
Biden immediately launched the Open Allies Welcome programme to allow vulnerable Afghan nationals, particularly those who might be viewed as US “collaborators” by the Taliban, to enter the US for two years without a permanent immigration status.
According to Congressional Research Service estimates, about 77,000 Afghans came to the US under the programme, which remained in place for one year until the US moved to its longer-term resettlement plan known as Operation Enduring Welcome.
“The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration,” DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said in an X post on Wednesday.
“This program let in thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals including terrorists into our country,” Noem said in a statement published on the DHS website.
Quoting multiple unnamed law enforcement officials, CNN reported that Lakamal had applied for asylum in 2024 and was granted it in 2025 under the Trump administration.
How has the US government responded to the attack?
In a video address from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, Trump called the shooting a “monstrous ambush-style attack” and “an act of evil and act of hatred and an act of terror”.
“As president of the United States, I am determined to ensure that the animal who perpetrated this atrocity pays the steepest possible price,” Trump added.
He continued: “I can report tonight that based on the best available information, the Department of Homeland Security is confident that the suspect in custody is a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan, a hellhole on Earth. He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021.”
Trump alleged that during the Biden administration, “nobody knew who was coming in” on the flights from Afghanistan to the US. He said Lakamal’s status “was extended under legislation signed by President Biden”.
“This attack underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation. The last administration let in 20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners from all over the world, from places that you don’t want to even know about.”
Trump announced: “We must now re-examine 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 any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”
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Patel said the shooting in the US capital “is a matter of national security”.
“We have assembled the full force of both the federal and state and local law enforcement agencies to bring all of our resources to make sure we find the perpetrators responsible for this heinous act,” Patel added.
The White House filed an emergency motion in federal court in the District of Columbia to halt an earlier ruling that would have seen the National Guard removed from Washington, DC.
Who came to the US from Afghanistan under Operation Allies Welcome?
According to the DHS website, more than 40 percent of the Afghans who arrived in the US through the programme were eligible for special immigrant visas (SIVs), a visa granted to Afghans who assisted the US military during its 20 years of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Afghans worked with the US military in several support roles, including as interpreters, guides, drivers, engineers and medics. They often placed themselves in direct danger from the Taliban, which viewed them as collaborators. Many also were exposed to active combat zones, were forced to flee their homes and risked losing their livelihoods when the US pulled out of the country.
In August 2021, video footage emerged of Afghans clinging to a taxiing US Air Force plane in a desperate attempt to flee the country. A clip showed two people falling from the sky as the plane took off.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have fled Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover, fearing persecution and economic collapse. Many have tried to escape to neighbouring countries, such as Pakistan and Iran, while others have gone to the US, United Kingdom and Europe.
How were Afghan immigrants vetted during the Biden administration?
The Trump administration claims Afghans were allowed into the US without proper vetting.
But the DHS webpage detailing the Operation Allies Welcome programme at the time stated: “The US government is working around the clock to conduct the security screening and vetting of vulnerable Afghans before they are permitted entry into the United States, consistent with the dual goals of protecting national security and providing protection for our Afghan allies.”
The website added that the DHS sent about 400 personnel from multiple agencies, including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard and the Secret Service to Bahrain, Germany, Kuwait, Italy, Qatar, Spain and the United Arab Emirates to work with the Departments of Defense (DOD) and State and other federal partners to process, screen, vet and interview Afghan nationals.
The DHS added that the screening process was “rigorous” and “multi-layered”. It involved biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement and counterterrorism professionals from DHS and DOD alongside the FBI, National Counterterrorism Center and other intelligence community partners.
Biometric data, such as fingerprints and photos, were reviewed for every single Afghan before they were cleared to travel to the US, it said.
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What other countries face visa restrictions under the Trump administration?
In June, Trump signed a presidential proclamation banning citizens of 12 countries from entering the US. Later that month, US media reported that the Trump administration was planning to add 36 more countries to the list, 26 of which are in Africa. However, the travel ban list has not yet been officially expanded.
The countries on the list are: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Citizens from these countries face a full ban on travel to the US and a suspension of immigrant and nonimmigrant visas. However, people with existing visas or who are lawful, permanent residents of the US are exempt from this ban. Holders of Afghan SIVs are also exempt.
In the same proclamation, Trump placed partial restrictions on citizens from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Based on Trump’s proclamation, citizens from these countries may no longer apply for immigrant visas or nonimmigrant temporary visas covering permanent immigration, student visas and tourism visas. They may still apply for some other temporary visas.
In October, Trump announced a new refugee cap for the US of 7,500 for the 2026 fiscal year with priority given to white South Africans, who he claims are the subject of a “white genocide”.
On Monday, the Trump administration announced it would cancel temporary asylum, including temporary protected status (TPS), for Myanmar nationals living in the US. TPS is a legal immigration pathway for foreign nationals whose home country is considered unsafe to return to, and 3,969 citizens of Myanmar currently have it. In 2021, the military took over in Myanmar, and the country has been at civil war since.
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