The Afghan man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, killing one, will face first-degree murder charges for an attack that prompted U.S. President Donald Trump to declare he would stop migrants from “Third World Countries.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would be filed against 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who she said ambushed the soldiers from the West Virginia National Guard near the White House on Wednesday.
Formal charges were not immediately filed against Lakanwal, who had been in the U.S. since 2021 under a program of then-President Joe Biden’s administration to resettle Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war in their homeland. He was granted asylum under Trump.
In a call on Thursday’s Thanksgiving holiday with U.S. military service members, Trump said the shootings were a “terrorist attack.”
Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died of her wounds on Thursday. Her National Guard colleague, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was in critical condition, Pirro said on Friday. The two were in Washington as part of Trump’s deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.
TRUMP RATCHETS UP RHETORIC ON IMMIGRATION
Trump, whose dispatch of troops to Washington faces fierce legal challenges, took to social media late on Thursday to escalate his rhetoric on immigration. Since taking office this year, he has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the U.S. legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings while stripping legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
“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, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” Trump said in his social media posts, referring to his predecessor in the White House.
Trump did not say which countries he considers “Third World,” nor what he meant by a permanent pause. It echoed the sweeping “Muslim ban” Trump tried to enact in his first term before it was diluted by successful legal challenges.
On Friday, Trump posted again on social media to say he was rescinding any document that Biden signed using an autopen, a tool that U.S. presidents, including Trump, have used for decades, often to answer mail or sign checks, or sometimes to meet authorization deadlines while traveling outside the capital.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump’s first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
Asked about Trump’s comment on “Third World” countries, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security referred Reuters to 19 countries listed in a June travel ban.
On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
Jorge Loweree, the managing director of programs and strategy at the American Immigration Council, said the president does not have authority through executive action to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress. He warned of chaos and disarray in the U.S. immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.
SHOOTING PROMPTS SWEEPING IMMIGRATION REVIEWS
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. More than 70,000 Afghans have been resettled in the U.S. under the program for those fearing reprisal by the Taliban forces, who seized control of Afghanistan after the U.S. military’s withdrawal. Officials said Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan before coming to the U.S.
He was granted asylum this year under Trump, according to a U.S. government file on him seen by Reuters.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two Guardsmen with a powerful revolver, a .357 Magnum, before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Less than 24 hours after the shooting, Trump officials began ordering widespread reviews of immigration policies. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Friday he would be proposing regulations to ensure that people he referred to as “illegal aliens” do not receive certain credits on income tax they have paid. The tax code is set by Congress, which already limits what kind of benefits, if any, non-citizens are eligible to seek.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect’s family, Trump said: “We’re looking at the whole situation with family.”
