The US will reexamine all green cards issued to people from 19 countries “of concern” at President Donald Trump’s course, as the Trump administration intensifies its immigration crackdown following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, DC.
“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” Joe Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, wrote in a post on X Thursday.
Asked for added particulars, together with which countries are thought of to be “of concern,” USCIS pointed NCS to 19 countries listed in a June presidential proclamation.
The 19 countries embody 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.
Since officers final night time recognized the suspect of the taking pictures as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan nationwide, the Trump administration has ramped up its efforts to prohibit immigration.
The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees USCIS, mentioned Thursday the administration can also be reviewing all asylum instances that have been permitted underneath former President Joe Biden.
“Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin mentioned in an announcement to NCS, including, “The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration.”
Lakanwal — who beforehand labored with the US authorities, together with the CIA — got here to the nation in 2021 as a part of Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome” after helping the US in Afghanistan. He utilized for asylum in 2024, and the Trump administration granted it in April 2025, NCS beforehand reported.
More than 190,000 Afghans have resettled within the United States for the reason that US army withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021, in accordance to the State Department.
In a video tackle from his Mar-a-Lago membership in Florida late Wednesday, Trump blamed the Biden administration for bringing the alleged shooter to the US and argued the assault “underscores the single greatest national security threat facing our nation.”
Trump mentioned within the remarks, “We must now reexamine every single alien who’s 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.”
Trump additionally lamented what he described as “20 million unknown and unvetted foreigners” who entered the US throughout his predecessor’s administration, casting it “a risk to our very survival.”
The administration’s newest transfer to reexamine green cards is consistent with Trump’s anti-immigration rhetoric. A green card is a doc that deems its holder as a lawful everlasting resident of the US. It differs from refugee and asylum packages — which the Trump administration has already sought to restrict — although refugees should apply for a green card after one yr of being within the US.