State Department pauses Afghan visas after D.C. attack kills Guard member

The State Department has temporarily suspended all visas for individuals traveling on Afghan passports following the attack in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday targeting members of the National Guard.

Rahmanullah Lakkanwal, 29, an Afghan national, was charged with first-degree murder among other charges related to the ambush, which has since claimed the life of a West Virginia Army National Guard soldier. Sarah Beckstrom and critically injured U.S. Air Force Sgt. Andrew Wolf, 24.

Multiple sources told Fox News Digital that Lakanwal was vetted by the CIA in Afghanistan and given final approval for asylum under President Donald Trump’s administration earlier this year.

“The State Department has immediately stopped issuing visas to individuals traveling on Afghan passports,” the department wrote in an announcement on social media. He added: “The Department is taking all necessary steps to protect American national security and public safety.”

law enforcement responded after two National Guard members were shot near the White House

Secretary of State Marco Rubio also took to X to share the news.

“President Trump’s State Department has temporarily suspended the issuance of visas to all individuals traveling on Afghan passports,” Rubio wrote in a post. “The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people.”

Afghanistan Evac, a US-based resettlement and resettlement non-profit, denounced Friday’s decision, calling the administration’s move a “violation of federal law.”

“Secretary Rubio appears to be attempting to shut down the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa Program in direct violation of federal law and Permanent Court orders,” AfghanEvac President Sean Vandiver said in a statement. “He appears to be acting at the direction of President Trump and Stephen Miller, and there is no doubt that this is the outcome they have been moving toward for months.”

“They are using one violent person as cover for a long-planned policy, and turning their intelligence failures into an excuse to punish the entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”

Vance’s previous warnings were renewed after an Afghan citizen was named as a suspect in the shooting of a capital guard

Two National Guard soldiers were shot and killed Wednesday near the White House in Washington, D.C., and the alleged gunman, Rehmanullah Lakkanwal, has been charged with first-degree murder. (AP Photo/Anthony Peltier, Department of Justice)

The new policy comes less than a day after Trump was questioned by the media about how the attack occurred following a successful audit.

“I mean he went crazy, and it happens. It happens a lot with these people,” Trump told reporters from his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. “There was no audit or anything… We have a lot of others in this country, and we would get them out, but they went wrong. Something happened to them.”

“When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very difficult to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it’s very difficult to get them out. But we’re going to get them all out now,” Trump noted.

National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot and killed in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. Beckstrom died Thursday in hospital. (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

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USCIS Director Joseph P. Edlow also announced Thursday that, at Trump’s direction, there will be a “comprehensive and rigorous re-examination” of every green card issued to immigrants from “every country of concern.”

The 19 countries that USCIS considers “high risk” include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.