US stops processing immigration requests of Afghan nationals after shooting near White House

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services late on Wednesday (November 26) said that it has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.

The measure came after a shooting earlier in Washington, D.C., in which two National Guard soldiers were shot and critically wounded in what officials described as a targeted ambush, and the suspect was in custody after suffering gunshot wounds during the attack.

Investigators identified the suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national from Washington State, according to two Trump administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, one official said.

Lakanwal came to the U.S. in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, according to the second official, a Biden-era program to resettle thousands of Afghans who assisted the U.S. during the Afghanistan war and were vulnerable to reprisals from the ruling Taliban after the U.S. withdrawal. He was processed through Washington Dulles International Airport on September 8 of that year.

-Reuters