President Donald Trump has ordered a broad review of all asylum cases approved during the Biden administration and every Green Card issued to nationals from 19 designated countries of concern, officials said Thursday.
The directive follows Wednesday's shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., allegedly carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan immigrant who entered the United States in 2021 under a Biden-era resettlement program.
The two Guard members remain in critical condition.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services immediately and indefinitely suspended processing of all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals.
The Department of Homeland Security announced it is also reviewing every asylum case approved under former President Joe Biden.
This includes approximately 233,000 refugees who entered the country between January 2021 and February 2025.
More than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the U.S. since the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Lakanwal, who previously assisted U.S. forces and the CIA, had his asylum application granted in April 2025 under the current Trump administration.
At President Trump's direction, USCIS Director Joseph Edlow ordered a full-scale reexamination of all Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.
The countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Burundi, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Laos, Libya, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Togo, Turkmenistan, Venezuela, and Yemen.
The administration has separately set the fiscal 2026 refugee admissions ceiling at a record-low 7,500, with priority given to white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity.
Trump described the shooting as evidence of national security failures under his predecessor and called for removal of any immigrant who does not "add benefit" to the country.