(Washington) American President Donald Trump has promised to prevent “immigration from all third world countries”, after the death of a national guard, hit like another soldier by shots attributed to an Afghan national.
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The soldier, Sarah Beckstrom, “has just left us,” the American president declared on television on Thursday, after this attack attributed to a 29-year-old Afghan, who arrived in the United States in 2021 after serving alongside the American army in Afghanistan. The other soldier is “fighting for his life” in the hospital.
As of Wednesday evening, the Republican billionaire announced a toughening of his anti-immigration policy. Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow announced a “full and rigorous review of every green card issued to any foreign national from countries deemed to be of concern.”
This permit, granting the title of permanent resident in the United States, will be re-examined for immigrants from Afghanistan, but also from 18 other countries including Venezuela, Haiti and Iran.
According to official data, more than 1.6 million foreigners with green cards, or 12% of permanent residents, come from one of these 19 countries. Afghanistan has more than 116,000.
More broadly, Donald Trump announced on the networks that he wanted to “permanently suspend immigration from all third world countries, in order to allow the American system to completely recover”.
“Western Civilization”
Entry authorizations to the country issued to “millions” of people by his predecessor Joe Biden could be called into question, he threatened.
He also promised that his government would “expel anyone who is not an asset to the United States (…), end federal benefits and subsidies for non-citizens (…), denaturalize migrants who harm the national tranquility, and expel any foreign national who constitutes a public burden, a security risk or who is not compatible with Western civilization.”
The suspect in the attack, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, remained hospitalized Friday.
According to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, he worked with the US military in Afghanistan. “We are fully investigating this aspect of his past,” FBI Director Kash Patel said.
PHOTO NATHAN HOWARD, REUTERS ARCHIVES
FBI Director Kash Patel speaks during a press conference in Washington, November 27, 2025.
American media claimed Friday that he had joined the “zero units” of the Afghan services, responsible for commando missions against the Taliban, Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State (IS) group.
Units operating outside the usual chain of command, and which “were largely recruited, trained, equipped and supervised by the CIA”, according to the organization Human Rights Watch. A diplomat nicknamed them the “death squads”.
THE New York Times quotes a childhood friend of the suspect, saying that he had been psychologically very affected by his missions in these units.
His motive remained unknown Friday. But he crossed the country by car from Washington State (Northwest) to go to the federal capital (East).
There, he carried out a “targeted” attack against soldiers, opening fire on two of them aged around 20, with a Smith & Wesson revolver, “without provocation, as in an ambush”. He was then neutralized.
In recent months, Donald Trump has caused controversy by sending members of this army reserve corps to several Democratic cities, against the advice of local authorities, citing the fight against crime and illegal immigration.
“Isolated act”
The suspect arrived in the United States a month after the hasty withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan during the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden, in August 2021, as part of an exfiltration operation of Afghans who collaborated with the Americans.
Senior U.S. officials say he did not face scrutiny upon arrival and benefited from lax reception policies.
The authorities have suspended the processing of immigration applications from Afghan nationals.
AfghanEvac, an organization responsible for helping Afghans settle in the United States, assured that they were subject to “some of the most thorough” security checks.
“The violent and isolated act of this individual should not be used as an excuse to define or demean an entire community,” warned its president, Shawn VanDiver.
According to the State Department, more than 190,000 Afghans have arrived in the United States since the Taliban took power.
