US Crackdown on Afghan Immigrants Following Washington DC Shooting
The Washington DC shooting that led to the arrest of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan evacuee who entered the U.S. in September 2021 and was granted asylum in April 2025, has prompted a crackdown on Afghan immigrants in the United States.
The Trump administration implemented several restrictive measures including freezing asylum decisions at USCIS, pausing visa and immigration applications filed by Afghans, and halting all legal immigration cases for nationals of 19 countries on the travel ban list, including Afghanistan. Additionally, green cards granted under the Biden administration have been re-examined and the validity period for work permits covering groups such as asylum-seekers and refugees has been reduced.
Officials defend these actions as necessary for national safety, citing enhanced vetting procedures that now include biometric enrollment, social-media checks, expanded background checks, and mandated annual in-person reporting. These steps follow previous federal scrutiny such as a 2022 inspector general report highlighting that the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) failed to use Department of Defense biometric data in vetting evacuees. Furthermore, a June federal report noted the FBI's use of investigative tools to mitigate threats.
The crackdown has generated significant uncertainty for thousands of families, with estimates indicating that up to about 1.5 million asylum applicants could be impacted by the pause. By 2022, roughly 80,000 Afghan immigrants had been granted humanitarian parole, and nearly 200,000 were welcomed into the U.S., with California, Virginia, Texas, and New York hosting the largest Afghan populations.
Freshta, a 29-year-old Afghan asylum applicant whose case is currently paused, expressed her desire to live a normal life with dignity, underscoring the profound effects the pause has imposed on her future plans.
