Washington, D.C. — A targeted shooting that left one National Guard member dead and another fighting for his life has ignited a fierce debate over U.S. immigration policy, with President Donald Trump swiftly announcing sweeping restrictions that could reshape the country’s approach to asylum and resettlement for years to come.
The attack unfolded near the White House on the evening of November 26, 2025. The victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, were in the capital as part of a recent deployment of federal troops to several U.S. cities, according to NBC News. Beckstrom succumbed to her wounds; Wolfe remains in critical condition, his family asking for prayers and describing him as “a fighter.”
Authorities quickly identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who had been living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children. Lakanwal was wounded in the encounter and taken into custody. Federal prosecutors revealed that he was resettled in the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome, a program launched during the Biden administration to assist Afghans who had worked alongside American forces following the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
Lakanwal’s background is complex and, in many ways, emblematic of the tangled web of alliances and risks that defined America’s two-decade war in Afghanistan. He served for a decade in the Afghan Army, working closely with U.S. Special Forces and, according to a CIA spokesperson, was a member of a partner force in Kandahar until 2021. He also worked directly with the CIA, beginning around 2011. “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,” a senior U.S. official told CNN. No evidence of such ties was found during multiple vetting processes, both before his employment and before his resettlement in the United States.
Despite these assurances, the shooting has unleashed a political firestorm. President Trump, responding within hours of the attack, called it “an act of terror” and announced the deployment of additional National Guard troops to the nation’s capital. In a video address released by the White House, Trump declared, “We will permanently pause migration from all third world countries.”
He didn’t stop there. The president directed the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to conduct a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” according to a statement released by USCIS Director Joseph Edlow on X. The list of 19 countries, flagged in a June presidential proclamation as “deficient with regards to screening and vetting,” includes Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Venezuela, and several African and Asian nations. Effective immediately, all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals have been halted indefinitely, Edlow confirmed.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced it is reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. The review is wide-ranging, encompassing not only recent arrivals like Lakanwal but also green card holders from the 19 countries of concern. “Protecting the country remains paramount,” Edlow said. “The American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies.”
Asked for details on the scope of the review, USCIS pointed to the presidential proclamation and declined to elaborate further. The agency’s moves have sent shockwaves through immigrant communities, particularly among Afghans who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome. “We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” a relative of Lakanwal told NBC News. “I cannot believe it that he might do this.”
Federal investigators are now scrutinizing both the suspect’s immigration history and the vetting process that cleared him for resettlement. U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said her office is reviewing the case in detail. The Biden administration has previously emphasized that all evacuees underwent “biometric and biographic screenings” by law enforcement and counterterrorism authorities. Still, the attack has prompted questions about whether those measures were sufficient.
Joe Kent, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center, weighed in with a sharply critical post on X, claiming that 85,000 Afghans were admitted to the U.S. under Biden “without the rigorous vetting that has protected us in the past.” Kent argued, “The suspect was only vetted to serve as a soldier to fight against the Taliban, AQ, & ISIS in Afghanistan, he was NOT vetted for his suitability to come to America and live among us as a neighbor, integrate into our communities, or eventually become an American citizen.”
Yet according to multiple CNN reports, Lakanwal’s record was “clean on all checks.” A senior U.S. official said, “In terms of vetting, nothing came up.” The official added that the U.S. government has conducted continuous, annual vetting of Afghan evacuees since their arrival, especially after a failed terror plot involving another Afghan evacuee was disrupted before last year’s election in Oklahoma. The vetting of individuals overseas by intelligence agencies differs from the domestic checks performed when people apply for asylum, a second official noted.
As the investigation continues, the human cost of the attack is being felt acutely in the victims’ communities. West Virginia Governor Patrick Morrisey and Adjutant General Jim Seward visited the wounded National Guard members in Washington, expressing support for their families and confirming that they had spoken directly with President Trump about the incident. The mayor of Bellingham, where Lakanwal lived, condemned the violence and pledged full cooperation with the FBI’s ongoing investigation.
For many, the tragedy has become a flashpoint in the broader debate over immigration, national security, and America’s obligations to its allies. Trump’s critics argue that the administration’s response risks punishing thousands of law-abiding immigrants and refugees for the alleged actions of one individual. Supporters, meanwhile, insist that the measures are necessary to prevent future attacks and to address what they see as systemic flaws in the vetting process.
As lawmakers and officials on both sides of the aisle grapple with the fallout, one thing is clear: the events in Washington have reignited longstanding tensions over who gets to call America home, and under what conditions. The coming weeks are likely to see heated debate, policy changes, and, for many families, a period of deep uncertainty.
In the aftermath of violence and heartbreak, the nation finds itself at a crossroads—torn between its ideals of refuge and its fears for security, searching for answers in the shadows of tragedy.
