The Trump administration has launched a comprehensive review of all green cards issued to nationals from 19 countries designated as security concerns, following a shooting incident involving two National Guard members in Washington, DC.
Nigeria, despite being recently classified as a Country of Particular Concern by the Trump administration, has been excluded from this directive.
Joe Edlow, director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), announced the initiative on social media platform X, stating: “At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
The 19 nations subject to the review are Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. These countries were originally identified in a presidential proclamation issued in June.
According to a subsequent USCIS statement, the enhanced vetting process will now evaluate “negative, country specific factors” for immigrants from these nations, including each country’s capacity to “issue secure identity documents.”
The heightened immigration enforcement measures follow the identification of the shooting suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who previously worked with US government agencies, including the CIA. He arrived in the United States in 2021 through the Biden administration’s “Operation Allies Welcome” program after providing assistance to American forces in Afghanistan. His asylum application, submitted in 2024, was approved by the Trump administration in April 2025.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which oversees USCIS, has extended its scrutiny beyond green card holders, announcing a review of all asylum cases approved during the Biden administration.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin declared: “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
She added: “The Trump Administration is also reviewing all asylum cases approved under the Biden Administration.”
On Thursday, the Alliance of Afghan Communities in the United States condemned the shooting while expressing concern about the broader consequences for Afghan immigrants seeking legal status in America.
The alliance’s statement urged: “A single individual’s crime must not jeopardize or obstruct the legal cases of thousands of deserving Afghans who meet all U.S. legal requirements.” The organization called on federal agencies to continue processing Afghan immigration cases without unnecessary delays.
According to State Department figures, more than 190,000 Afghans have resettled in the United States since the American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
