Trump administration will reexamine green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern”

The director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services said today that at President Donald Trump’s direction, he has ordered all green cards issued to people from countries “of concern” be reexamined.

When asked for additional details, including which countries are considered to be “of concern,” USCIS pointed CNN to the 19 countries listed in a June presidential proclamation.

The 19 countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

Key context: Trump moved within hours last night to point to the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC, as justification for an even more intense immigration crackdown.

The Department of Homeland Security told CNN today that it is reviewing all asylum cases approved by the Biden administration.

The suspect in last night’s shooting came to the country in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome after assisting the US in Afghanistan, though he was granted asylum just last April. A US official told CNN the suspect was “clean on all checks” before working with the government and again before coming to the US.

West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey and West Virginia Adjutant Gen. Jim Seward have visited the National Guard members “who are in critical condition,” the governor said in a statement.

Morrisey also said he spoke with Trump about the incident last night.

The Department of Homeland Security said today that the Trump administration is reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under former President Joe Biden.

The review comes after an Afghan national is suspected of having shot two National Guard members near the White House on Wednesday.

The suspect — who worked with the US government, including the CIA — came to the country in 2021 as part of Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome.” He applied for asylum in 2024, and the Trump administration granted it in April 2025.

McLaughlin, in the statement, also reiterated a late Wednesday announcement from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services that said, “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

The father of Andrew Wolfe, one of the victims in yesterday’s shooting of two National Guard members, asked for prayers today as the 24-year-old remains in critical condition.

“Please pray for my son,” Jason Wolfe told CNN, adding that his son is “a great person” and “a fighter.”

Jason Wolfe did not provide an update on his son’s condition.

The mayor of Bellingham, Washington — where the suspected shooter lived — condemned yesterday’s attack on two National Guard members in the nation’s capital and said the city is ready to assist with the FBI’s investigation.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal began working with the CIA around 2011, a senior US official told CNN.

At the time, the CIA would have done its own vetting of him through a variety of databases, including the National Counterterrorism Center database, to see if he had any known ties to terrorist groups. The CIA did its own vetting before he started working with them and kept the identities of those they worked with secret, the official said.

NCTC would have vetted him again during Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 for any ties to terrorism before he was allowed into the US. He was clean then as well and did not show any ties to terror organizations, per the senior US official.

“In terms of vetting, nothing came up,” according to a senior US official. “He was clean on all checks.”

The official added that the US government had been doing continuous, annual vetting of individuals since the Afghans’ arrival in the US, especially in the wake of the failed terror plot disrupted before the election last year in Oklahoma which involved an Afghan evacuee.

Personal photos from 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe’s Facebook page highlight the cheerful spirit of the US Air Force staff sergeant, one of the National Guard members critically injured in Wednesday’s shooting.

Wolfe, a native of Martinsburg, West Virginia, serves with the 167th Airlift Wing, West Virginia Air National Guard, where he has been assigned to the Force Support Squadron since joining the Guard on February 5, 2019.

Officials confirmed that Wolfe, and the second victim, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, remain hospitalized in critical condition after undergoing surgery.

Andrew Wolfe’s neighbors said the shooting of the 24-year-old Martinsburg, West Virginia native in Washington, DC, this week hit close to home.

Michael Langone told CNN that he’s lived next to Wolfe for about two years, and described him as a “great guy” who would “give the shirt off of his back to somebody.”

“We always looked out for each other. Best neighbor you could ask for really,” he said, adding, “it really caught us off guard, really close to home.”

Wolfe, along with 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, were shot yesterday while deployed on National Guard duty in the nation’s capital. They remain in critical condition, according to federal authorities.

Langone said the shooting was unimaginable for the close-knit community. “We haven’t had any issues, and we’re blessed to have him as a neighbor, and I just hope his family is doing okay,” he said.

Tina Gesford, another neighbor, called Wolfe a “positive, good kid” and emphasized the fear the shooting has instilled in the community.

“It’s scary thinking that one of our people is down there getting hurt. You know, especially somebody that works hard and goes to work every day and he gets hurt like that,” she told CNN.

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members was brought to the United States due to his “prior work with the U.S. Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said in a statement sent to CNN.

Ratcliffe added that the alleged shooter arrived in the wake of the withdrawal of US forces from the country.

Ratcliffe’s statement was previously reported by Fox News. FBI Director Kash Patel also said at a press conference earlier today that the suspect “had a relationship in Afghanistan with partner forces.”

Lakanwal came to the United States in 2021 as part of “Operation Allies Welcome.” He applied for asylum in 2024 and it was granted in April 2025.

In Washington, DC, today, we’ve seen an American flag and flowers placed near the Farragut West metro station, the area where two National Guard members were shot last night.

The two victims of the attack, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, remain hospitalized in critical condition after undergoing surgery, according to federal officials.

City and county leaders from the hometowns of the two National Guard members who were gravely wounded in a shooting yesterday in Washington, DC, expressed gratitude for their service and asked for prayers for the West Virginia natives.

One of the wounded, US Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, is from Summersville, West Virginia.

“This year, I ask that we all take a moment to pray for the National Guard members who were recently shot, their families, and everyone affected by this tragedy,” Summersville mayor, Robert Shafer, wrote in a post online. “Our thoughts and deepest prayers are with them during this incredibly difficult time.”

The other victim, US Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is from Martinsburg, West Virginia, which is in Berkeley County.

“Happy Thanksgiving. Our thoughts are certainly with our friends and partners at the West Virginia National Guard and all our colleagues and neighbors who know the victims of yesterday’s shooting in DC,” the City of Martinsburg posted on social media.

The president of the Berkeley County Commission asked for the community to pray.

“We are deeply saddened to learn of the Cowardly act of violence taken against two of our West Virginia Guardsmen,” said Eddie Gochenour in a social media post. “At this time of Thanksgiving, we ask everyone to pray for recovery and pray for the families, including one of our own, as they go through this very difficult time.”

​There have been two significant recent cases involving an attack or plot on US soil where the alleged perpetrators are Afghans who were well known to US officials.

Both individuals worked for the US, specifically for the CIA. Officials said Thursday that DC shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal worked with partner forces in Afghanistan.

The other recent case came out of Oklahoma City and involves Nasir Tawhedi. Tawhedi had worked as a security officer at a CIA base in Afghanistan. I had visited that same facility when I traveled to Afghanistan with a NYPD team in 2018. I was impressed by the loyalty the Afghans who worked on the security team showed to the United States.

In October 2024, the FBI arrested Tawhedi for plotting a mass shooting terrorist attack on Election Day. A federal complaint charged that he had been in contact with an ISIS recruiter, had sold his home and belongings, made arrangements to move his family back to Afghanistan. The FBI charged that Tawhedi had purchased two AK-47s from an undercover agent along with a massive amount of ammunition.

These two cases should make us question what happened to these two men, both of whom had put their lives on the line for the US in Afghanistan. Few of the more than 80,000 evacuees we brought back in those desperate days after the US military withdrawal got into trouble. Both cases are worthy of a deep dive by investigators, not just to prove the case against the latest suspect but to try and solve the puzzle around the pathway to violence for these two men.

After a gunman opened fire yesterday on two National Guard members in Washington, DC, President Donald Trump called for even more troops to be sent to the district.

That all comes as a federal judge considers the legality of Trump’s National Guard deployment in the first place.

Here’s what you should know:

DC under federal control: Back in August, Trump placed DC’s police department “under direct federal control,”citing a public safety emergency after an assault on a former government worker. He announced he was deploying troops, and National Guard members began appearing in DC.

Legal action: DC’s attorney general’s office sued the Trump administration in early September over the National Guard deployment.

Recent ruling: Just last week, a federal judge ruled that Trump’s Defense Department illegally deployed the National Guard in the district. While the order for that decision is delayed to allow time for an appeal, adding more troops would fly in the face of the order.

What we know about the new troops: Following the shooting, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said the president asked for 500 more service members to be deployed to DC. Hegseth will make the request to the secretary of the Army.

The West Virginia National Guard today provided additional information about the two Guard members who were critically wounded in a shooting yesterday in Washington, DC.

Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, 20, began Guard service on June 26, 2023, and was assigned to the 863rd Military Police Company, 111th Engineer Brigade, West Virginia Army National Guard, a news release states.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, joined the Guard on February 5, 2019, and was assigned to the Force Support Squadron, 167th Airlift Wing, West Virginia Air National Guard.

Beckstrom, of Summersville, West Virginia, and Wolfe, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, had been deployed in the nation’s capital since August when the mission there began, according to the Guard.

Both remain hospitalized, state and federal officials said.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who has been identified by authorities as the suspect in the shooting, came to the US in 2021 under a program implemented by the Biden administration following the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He was granted asylum in April by the Trump administration, multiple law enforcement officials told CNN.

Lakanwal arrived in the US on September 8, 2021, as part of a program called Operation Allies Welcome, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said last night. Biden launched the program in August 2021 to protect vulnerable Afghans following the US withdrawal.

Afghans admitted to the US under the program underwent extensive vetting, and those later granted asylum also underwent additional vetting before it was approved.

Lakanwal was evacuated by the US military in August 2021 following the fall of Kabul and arrived under humanitarian parole, the temporary authority used to evacuate tens of thousands from the country, according to AfghanEvac, a volunteer run, non-profit organization that helped oversee the process.

More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled in the US, according to the State Department.

Most Afghans were allowed to enter and remain in the US for two years without permanent immigration status. More than 40% of those admitted to the program were eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) because they took great risks to help the US, or were related to someone who did, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

In Lakanwal’s case, he previously served in NDS-03, one of Afghanistan’s elite counterterrorism units that was operated by the CIA with direct US intelligence and military support, according to AfghanEvac.

Initially, Lakanwal had an active SIV application underway and had received Chief of Mission (COM) approval but had not yet been granted lawful permanent residence. Instead, he applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but application was approved under Trump.

Both Lakanwal’s Chief of Mission application and his asylum application required review and vetting by the US government, including the CIA, according to AfghanEvac.

Before granting asylum, US Citizen and Immigration Services would have first reviewed Lakanwal’s identity and background checks, biometric vetting, in-person interviews and an assessment of individualized risk and eligibility under US law, the group notes.

The suspect in the DC shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had previously worked with US forces in Afghanistan, officials said Thursday, with CIA Director John Ratcliffe saying in a statement to Fox News that this included the CIA. Here’s some context on the Afghans who worked with US partner forces there.

Thousands of young Afghan men engaged in some of the most brutal operations of the American war in Afghanistan. They were often employed as contractors working directly for the US agencies like the CIA, sometimes fighting for the Afghan intelligence service, the NDS, and executing strikes based on US intelligence.

Lakanwal would likely have been 18 in 2014, and so of legitimate fighting age by around 2017. By this point, the US presence in Afghanistan had reduced from hundreds of Forward Operating Bases across the country to rely more on targeted operations designed to hobble a growing Taliban insurgency by killing their leaders and key operators. These raids happened nightly, although by 2016 had reduced in intensity.

Authorities have yet to specify a motivation for the attack, and scant details have been released by US officials or the CIA about Lakanwal’s work for them.

Still, Afghans employed by the CIA – through whatever proxy – to fight the Taliban would have been involved in some of the most high-risk and violent tasks the US military sought to execute. Afghan veterans from this fighting would be highly experienced and sullied by the conflict. The NDS ran a series of so-called “Zero Units,” which were well-trained and asked to perform some tasks the US government might have felt squeamish about.

They often worked and even lived alongside US special forces, as the US presence in Afghanistan reduced and focused more on sustaining the central government’s writ in the capital and regional hubs. Afghans who worked for the NDS and for US special forces can expect to have suffered the same acute combat stress and mental health issues that US veterans themselves have reported.

When the Taliban swept into Kabul in August 2021, and a chaotic evacuation ensued, thousands of young men who had fought for the Americans joined the families and civilians trying to flee through the airport. Hundreds of US veterans also worked hard to ensure the Afghans they had fought alongside were among the hundred thousand people who were airlifted from Kabul.

Much was made of the vetting of those who were flown from Afghanistan out to various third countries before they reached the United States. But the process on the ground in the chaos of the Kabul evacuation was, most witnesses said, hectic and partial, with planes often filled faster than the applicants could be assessed and processed. The US military had days in which to unwind its longest war, thousands of people to save, and limited time to assess the temperament, history and future prospects of every Afghan who needed to flee the Taliban.

News of the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members rattled the hometown of Andrew Wolfe, one of the victims who remains in critical condition.

“It spread so quickly,” Tara Newcomb of Martinsburg, West Virginia, told CNN. She saw a post dedicated to Wolfe shared thousands of times online, she said.

Karen Moore, who works at a local diner, described Martinsburg as a “very friendly” community where “everybody wants to help everybody.”

A lot of people in town are “hurt” and “upset” by the news of Wolfe’s shooting, Newcomb said. “You know, they have the right to be. Something like this should have never happened.”

Officials provided new details on yesterday’s shooting in Washington, DC, that critically wounded two National Guard members.

(CNN)