Washington DC shooting latest: Trump condemns ‘heinous assault’ on National Guard and says suspect is Afghan refugee

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said late Wednesday it has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely, after two National Guard soldiers were shot and critically wounded in Washington.

President Donald Trump said that the shooting near the White House was “an act of terror,” saying the suspect came from Afghanistan in 2021.

The move follows Trump’s call for his government to re-examine Afghan immigrants who entered the United States when Joe Biden was President.

“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said in a post on X.

The D.C commander of the Joint Task Force has sent his “thoughts and prayers” to the two national guard troops who were shot Wednesday.

The task force is the National Guard office responsible for organizing the guard mission to the U.S. Capitol.

“On behalf of myself, and the entire Task Force, our thoughts and prayers are with the National Guardsmen and National Guard families who are going into a Thanksgiving Holiday with a burden that I wouldn’t wish on anyone,” US Army Col. Larry Doane said in a statement on X.

“These Guardsmen came to the District from West Virginia to make their nation’s capital, safe and beautiful. They’re heroes.”

Doane also praised the law enforcement officials who “ran towards danger” and “subdued the suspected shooter.”

“I’d like to highlight the level of training, focus, and wherewithal it takes to see two of your own shot and have the presence of mind to subdue the suspect with no further incident,” he added.

The White House press pool, a group of journalists that travels with Donald Trump and reports on his movements, were not told about his impromptu remarks on the D.C. shooter.

A pool reporter Wednesday said that they were not advised about the inflammatory address that were streamed on the White House YouTube site “neither before, nor after.”

“No members of the pool were present during their broadcast or taping. That was not the pool camera used,” the reporter noted.

“Pool has no information about the remarks beyond what the president posted on his social media platform.”

Senior White House advisor Stephen Miller vowed that the administration would “send out” anyone who did not “add benefit” to the U.S. regardless of their refugee or asylum status.

“[Trump’s] government is going to accelerate efforts to review every person added to this country over the last four years, all 20 million,” Miller told Fox News.

“Obviously, if you’re an illegal you’re out automatically, but everybody else who was brought here, refugee, asylum status, whatever status, as he said, if you’re not someone who loves this country, if you are not adding benefit to this country we’re going to send you out.”

In his remarks Wednesday night Donald Trump said the Homeland Security Department is “confident” that the suspect was from Afghanistan, which the president described as “a hellhole on Earth.”

“He was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 for those infamous flights that everybody was talking about. Nobody knew who was coming in,” Trump said.

The president was seemingly referring to Operation Allies Welcome. In August 2021, then-President Joe Biden directed the Homeland Security Department to lead efforts in support of the operation, which worked to help resettle vulnerable Afghans in the U.S.

A relative of Rahmanullah Lakanwal told NBC News that he had come to America after serving in the Afghan Army for 10 years.

Donald Trump ripped into the suspect who shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., Wednesday afternoon in what the president called a “monstrous ambush-style attack.”

Trump, who has been in Florida for the Thanksgiving holiday, said in an address Wednesday night, “I am determined to ensure that the animal who perpetrated this atrocity pays the steepest possible price.”

Rachel Dobkin recaps everything we know about the attack so far:

Chief of the National Guard Bureau, General Steven Nordhaus, said in a video posted to X that he and his senior enlisted advisor, John Raines, will travel from Guantanamo Bay to Washington, D.C., to be with guardsmen struck by Wednesday’s tragic shooting.

“The chief and I were planning to spend Thanksgiving with our Guard and joint force troops here in Guantanamo Bay, but we’re returning to Washington, D.C., to be with our guardsmen there who continue to protect the capital city,” Raines said.

Nordhaus added: “We are devastated by this senseless act of violence, and we will remain on station to defend and protect our fellow citizens at home and abroad.”

Advocacy group AfghanEvac has condemned the attack in Washington D.C. but warned that the incident should not be used to “isolate or harm” Afghans who have resettled in the U.S.

“We reject and condemn anyone who uses, or seeks to use, violence, and we stand with every American who is horrified and saddened by this crime,” said Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group.

In a statement shared online he said that the perpetrator should face “full accountability and prosecution under the law” and that “this individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”

“Those who would twist this moment to attack Afghan families aren’t seeking safety or justice — they’re exploiting division and endangering all of us,” he said.

VanDiver added Afghan immigrants and wartime allies who resettle in the U.S. undergo extensive security vetting.

CNN reports that a handgun that is believed to have been used in the attack on the National Guard members has been recovered from the scene of Wednesday’s shooting in the Capitol.

Investigators are now working to determine when and how the suspect obtained it.

U.S. law restricts firearms sales to people who aren’t citizens or legal permanent residents.

It is unclear how the suspect, now identified as an Afghan national who entered the country in 2021, could have obtained it.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services has announced that it has halted the processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals “indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

The measures were “effective immediately,” the USCIS wrote on X Wednesday evening.

“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission.”