Trump vows to clamp down on migration from developing nations after D.C. attack
CBC
U.S. President Donald Trump has vowed to "permanently pause migration" from several countries, with his Department of Homeland Security prepared to carry out his policies.
The extended Trump rant on social media came just before midnight Thursday, the day after the shooting of two National Guard members who were deployed to patrol Washington, D.C., under Trump's orders on Wednesday.
A 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the post-9/11 war in Afghanistan is now being charged with first-degree murder in the death of 20-year-old Specialist Sarah Beckstrom of the West Virginia National Guard.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey paid tribute to Beckstrom in a statement, saying she "served with courage, extraordinary resolve, and an unwavering sense of duty to her state and to her nation.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is accused of driving across the country from Washington state and using a revolver in what officials described as an "ambush" near a D.C. subway station. Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains in critical condition with unspecified injuries from the attack.
The suspect, currently in custody, was also shot and had wounds that were not believed to be life-threatening. Charges against him have been upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the soldiers died, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia announced Friday.
He immigrated to the U.S. in 2021 as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Trump, who began his social media post by extending Thanksgiving greetings to "all of our Great American Citizens and Patriots," said that even as the U.S. has "progressed technologically, Immigration Policy has eroded those gains and living conditions for many," detailing a list of claims about the effects of migration on employment and crime that have long been disputed.
"Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation," Trump said, calling for an end to migration from "all Third World Countries."
Trump cited the example of Somalis who have settled in Minnesota, seizing on a case of alleged COVID-19 fraud involving a Somali-American group. In the process, the president used a slur for mentally disabled people to describe Minnesota's governor, Tim Walz.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reposted Trump's messages, saying that "the fight for western civilization is just getting started." Subsequent DHS posts on social media platform X called on Americans to "help deport them" and "help arrest them," with a link to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) recruitment page.
On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. Department of State has paused the issuance of visas to all individuals traveling on Afghan passports.
And Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said on X that his agency had "halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible."
On Thursday, Trump met with reporters at his Florida estate. Asked by a reporter on Thursday if he blamed the shootings on all Afghans who came to the U.S., Trump said: "No, but we've had a lot of problems with Afghans," without elaborating.
