Including Afghanistan, the Suspect's Country of Origin
On the 26th (local time), following a shooting incident targeting the state National Guard near the White House in Washington, D.C., the Donald Trump administration announced a plan to conduct a comprehensive re-investigation of permanent residents from 19 "countries of concern," including Afghanistan, the suspect's country of origin. Since the launch of Trump's second administration, immigration barriers have been further strengthened, and this incident is expected to heighten them even more.
After the shooting incident targeting the National Guard near the White House on the 26th (local time), National Guard members are patrolling the area. Photo by AP
Joseph Edlow, Director of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), stated on the 27th via his social media that, under President Trump's directive, "we are conducting a comprehensive and rigorous re-investigation of the permanent residency status of all foreign nationals from countries of concern."
Although Director Edlow did not specify the countries by name, major U.S. media outlets such as CBS, citing multiple Department of Homeland Security officials, reported that Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Venezuela are among the 19 countries on the list of concern.
Previously, President Trump had already signaled plans to tighten immigration controls in a White House video released after the shooting incident. He stated, "We must immediately re-investigate all foreign nationals who entered our country from Afghanistan during the Biden (former administration) era," adding, "We must take all necessary measures to deport foreign nationals from any country who do not belong in our country or do not contribute to it."
The Trump administration has already suspended all immigration procedure reviews for Afghan nationals.
The suspect in this shooting incident has been identified as Ramanullah Rakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national. Rakanwal had been living in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, and it has been determined that prior to the crime, he drove across the United States from Bellingham in the northwest to Washington, D.C. in the east. According to U.S. authorities, he previously cooperated with the U.S. government, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), during the Afghanistan War, and entered the United States in September 2021 after the U.S. military withdrawal.
U.S. media reported that Rakanwal was a member of the "Zero Unit," an Afghan counterterrorism force organized and trained by the CIA, which carried out missions to raid, capture, and eliminate individuals designated as terrorists with U.S. support. He was also reported to have been granted asylum in April of this year, three months after the start of Trump's second administration.
Meanwhile, Kathy Patel, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced at a joint agency briefing that the shooting has been classified as an act of terrorism and that a full-scale terrorism investigation has commenced. Janine Pirro, District Attorney of Washington, D.C., also strongly criticized the incident, stating, "This was not a simple attack, but a direct challenge to the law and order of our nation's capital."
Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that Rakanwal will be prosecuted on terrorism charges and that she will seek a life sentence, warning that if any of the injured soldiers die, she will seek the death penalty.
The two soldiers who were shot have been identified as Sarah Beckstrom (20) and Andrew Wolf (24) of the West Virginia National Guard. Notably, Beckstrom had volunteered to work during the Thanksgiving holiday. Rakanwal was also shot and subdued at the scene and is currently under medical custody at a hospital.
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