US reviewing 'every' Green Card of 19 countries after capital attack

US President Donald Trump

The Trump administration on Thursday announced a review of the immigration status of all permanent residents or “Green Card” holders from Afghanistan and 18 other nations, following the attack on National Guard troops in Washington.

Authorities have identified the detained suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as an Afghan national who previously worked with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. According to AfghanEvac, the group that assisted in resettling Afghans after the 2021 Taliban takeover, the 29-year-old suspect was granted asylum, not permanent residency, in April this year.

“I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said on X.

When asked which countries fall under this category, a USCIS spokesperson referred AFP to President Donald Trump’s June executive order designating 19 countries as “of Identified Concern.” That order barred entry for most nationals from 12 of those countries, including Afghanistan.

The other countries hit with a full travel ban were Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

A partial ban also applied to seven additional nations, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, allowing only limited categories of temporary work visas for their citizens.

The FBI has opened an international terrorism investigation after identifying the alleged gunman in the Washington attack as a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously served alongside U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

Officials described the shooting as an “ambush-style” attack, a development that cast a dark shadow over the Thanksgiving holiday and prompted a strong anti-immigration response from President Donald Trump.

In a brief video statement, Trump called the shooting an “act of evil” and portrayed immigrants as a direct national security threat, while his administration moved to immediately halt the processing of immigration applications from Afghanistan.

“We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country. If they can't love our country, we don't want them,” the president said.

On Thursday, Joseph Edlow, Trump’s director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced that he had ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”

The incident has collided with three of the most politically charged debates in the United States: Trump’s use of the military on domestic soil, the administration’s hard-line immigration stance, and the unresolved legacy of America’s two-decade war in Afghanistan.

*With Agency Inputs