Trump Crackdown Forces State Department to Halt Afghan Visas After DC Terror Attack
The State Department issued a sweeping directive Friday, blocking visa approvals for Afghan nationals just hours after President Donald Trump vowed to crack down on third-world migration. The internal guidance ordered consular officers to refuse all Afghan passport holders—regardless of visa category—until enhanced vetting measures are in place.
The move follows Trump’s Thanksgiving pledge to shut down the Biden-era immigration pipeline, citing the deadly shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, D.C. by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national admitted under Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome” in 2021. Twenty-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom was killed in the attack, and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition.
Trump wrote in a late-night post that he would “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover,” vowing to “terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions” and remove those “not a net asset to the United States.”
He also declared the refugee influx a key driver of “social dysfunction,” writing that “hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota” and warning of “Somalian gangs roving the streets looking for prey.”
The new State Department guidance mandates that all Afghan visa applications—nonimmigrant, immigrant, and special immigrant visas—be refused if the applicant is using an Afghan passport. Already-approved visas that have not been printed must be canceled. Those printed but not delivered must be voided. The guidance allows exceptions for dual nationals using passports from other countries, but notes further vetting protocols will soon be issued.
Trump tied the policy shift directly to the Thanksgiving Eve ambush in D.C., which he called a result of failed vetting and national security negligence. He blasted the Biden administration for allowing dangerous individuals into the country, and said only “reverse migration” can fix the problem.
U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro confirmed Friday that both Guardsmen had been “sworn in less than 24 hours before they were shot on the street in Washington,” deployed under Trump’s executive order to increase military support in the capital.
Pirro described the shooting as a premeditated ambush, saying the attacker used a revolver to shoot Beckstrom before turning her rifle on Wolfe. Trump said Beckstrom was “savagely attacked” and called her an “incredible person” who was “outstanding in every single way.”
Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025, despite warnings from national security officials that the Biden-era refugee pipeline lacked adequate vetting. Trump has since ordered a review of all Afghan asylum approvals and green card applications issued since 2021.
The new visa freeze signals the beginning of a larger Trump administration effort to overhaul immigration policy through executive action. Officials say the White House is preparing a full suspension of benefits for non-citizens, a new denaturalization push for anti-American migrants, and broad deportation operations targeting “public charges” and “those incompatible with Western Civilization.”
Trump wrote that these goals would bring about “a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations” and said those who “hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for… won’t be here for long.”