On Thanksgiving Day, November 27, 2025, President Donald Trump ignited a fierce national debate after announcing sweeping new restrictions on immigration, following a deadly shooting in Washington, DC that left one National Guard member dead and another critically wounded. The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who had resettled in the United States after working with U.S. forces in Afghanistan, was quickly identified by authorities as the man behind the attack. The incident, which unfolded just blocks from the White House, has since become a flashpoint in the ongoing struggle over America’s immigration policies.
Trump’s response was swift and uncompromising. In a late-night post on his Truth Social platform, the president declared, “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions.” According to BBC, Trump’s message, which began with an incongruous “Happy Thanksgiving salutation,” was filled with sharp rhetoric blaming refugees for “social dysfunction in America” and promising to “remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country.”
While Trump did not specify which nations would be affected by the new ban, the phrase “Third World countries” is typically used to describe developing nations in the Global South. The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) clarified that, at the president’s direction, it had initiated a “full-scale, rigorous re-examination” of every green card issued to immigrants from 19 “countries of concern.” As reported by The Associated Press and CBS News, this list includes Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Venezuela, among others.
The immediate policy changes did not stop there. USCIS also announced the indefinite suspension of all Afghan immigration requests, pending a comprehensive review of security and vetting protocols. This move came just hours after the attack, which officials say was carried out by Lakanwal, who had come to the U.S. in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome—a program designed to protect Afghans who had assisted U.S. forces during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed that Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old National Guard member from West Virginia, died from her injuries on November 27, 2025. Beckstrom had volunteered to serve in Washington, DC over the holiday, part of Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops aimed at cracking down on crime in the capital. Her fellow Guard member, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition and “is fighting for his life,” Trump said in statements reported by Axios and BBC.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro provided further details about the suspect, identifying Lakanwal as a former Afghan partner to U.S. forces, who had been granted asylum earlier in 2025. Pirro noted that Lakanwal lived with his family in Bellingham, Washington, and had driven across the country to DC prior to the attack. The CIA confirmed that he had previously worked with the agency as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, a relationship that ended when the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021.
In his online posts and subsequent remarks, Trump did not mince words about who he believed was responsible for the shooting. He squarely blamed what he called the “reckless resettlement policies” of the Biden administration, accusing his predecessor of admitting “millions” of illegal immigrants. Trump vowed to “terminate” the status of all migrants admitted under Biden’s tenure and to “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national who is a “public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western civilization.” He also pledged to “end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens.”
These announcements mark the latest—and perhaps most drastic—escalation in Trump’s hardline approach to immigration. In October, his administration set the refugee admissions cap for 2026 at just 7,500, the lowest number since 1980. According to The Associated Press, the government is also reviewing the cases of approximately 200,000 refugees admitted during the Biden administration, suspending green card applications for refugees who arrived during that period.
Not everyone agrees with Trump’s characterization of the threat posed by immigrants. Jeremy McKinney, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told BBC World Service’s Newsday that the president’s response amounted to “scapegoating” migrants. “These types of issues—they don’t know skin color, they don’t know nationality,” McKinney said, emphasizing that radicalization and mental illness can affect people from any background. He also pointed out that the attacker’s motive was still unknown and cautioned against drawing sweeping policy conclusions from a single tragic event.
For many Americans, the debate over immigration is deeply personal and politically charged. Supporters of Trump’s new measures argue that the government has a duty to protect its citizens and that recent events prove the need for stricter vetting and enforcement. They see the president’s actions as a necessary response to what they view as systemic failures in the current immigration system. Critics, however, warn that such policies risk demonizing entire communities, undermining America’s reputation as a beacon of hope for refugees, and violating the country’s long-standing commitment to due process and fairness.
The White House and USCIS have yet to provide detailed information on how the new bans and reviews will be implemented, or how long they might last. As the nation awaits further clarification, legal experts and advocacy groups are preparing for what many expect will be a series of court challenges. The lack of specificity—particularly regarding which countries are included and what criteria will be used for denaturalization or deportation—has only fueled uncertainty and anxiety among immigrant communities.
Meanwhile, the families of those directly affected by the shooting are left to grapple with grief and unanswered questions. For the Beckstrom family and the National Guard community, the loss of Sarah Beckstrom is a devastating blow. For others, the incident raises difficult questions about the complex relationship between national security, immigration, and America’s responsibilities to those who have risked their lives to support U.S. missions abroad.
As the political fallout unfolds, one thing is clear: the debate over who belongs in America—and under what circumstances—remains as contentious and consequential as ever. The coming weeks will test not only the administration’s resolve but also the nation’s capacity for compassion, justice, and common sense in the face of tragedy and fear.
