The Trump administration announced Thursday that it will conduct a sweeping review of the immigration status of all permanent residents or Green Card holders from Afghanistan and 18 other countries following the attack on National Guard troops in Washington.
US officials have identified the detained suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked alongside American forces in Afghanistan. According to AfghanEvac, an organization involved in resettling Afghans after the 2021 Taliban takeover, the 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 US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said on X.
When asked which countries fall under this review, a USCIS spokesperson referred AFP to President Donald Trump’s June executive order designating 19 nations as “countries of Identified Concern.” The order barred entry for nearly all nationals from 12 of them, including Afghanistan.
Other countries under the full travel ban are Myanmar, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
Trump also imposed a partial ban on travelers from seven additional countries — Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela — though some temporary work visas from those nations remain permitted.
AFP
