Trump vows to freeze migration from ‘Third World countries’ after Washington attack
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US President Donald Trump says he will deport “any foreign national who is non-compatible with Western civilisation”.
PHOTO: TIERNEY CROSS/NYTIMES
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WASHINGTON – US President Donald Trump said on Nov 27 his administration will “permanently pause” migration from all “Third World countries” following the death of a National Guard member in an attack near the White House.
The comments mark a further escalation of migration measures Mr Trump has ordered since the shooting on Nov 26
Mr Trump did not identify any country by name, or explain what he meant by Third World countries, or “permanently pause”. He said the plan would include cases approved under former president Joe Biden’s administration.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World countries to allow the US system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States,” he said on his social media platform, Truth Social.
‘Non-compatible with Western civilisation’
Mr Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies to “non-citizens”, adding he will “denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity”, and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or “non-compatible with Western civilisation”.
White House and US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.
UN agencies appealed to Washington to continue allowing asylum seekers access to the country and to be given due process. “We expect all countries, including the United States, to honour their commitments under the 1953 Refugee Convention,” Mr Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general, told Reuters.
UN human rights office spokesperson Jeremy Laurence told a Geneva press briefing: “They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process.”
Trump claims hundreds of thousands of migrants are unvetted
Mr Trump’s remarks followed the death on Nov 27 of National Guard member
Fellow Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, was “fighting for his life”, Mr Trump said.
Earlier, officials from the Department of Homeland Security said Mr Trump had ordered a widespread review of asylum cases approved under Mr Biden’s administration and green cards issued to citizens of 19 countries.
The FBI has launched an international terror investigation as new details emerged about the alleged gunman, identified by officials as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who was a member of the “Zero Units” – a CIA-backed counter-terrorism group, according to multiple US media reports.
Rahmanullah was granted asylum in 2025 under Mr Trump, according to a US government file seen by Reuters.
He entered the US in a resettlement programme set up by Mr Biden after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan government and the country’s takeover by the Taliban.
In a separate post prior to his “permanently pause” announcement, Mr Trump claimed that hundreds of thousands of people poured into the US totally “unvetted and unchecked” during what he described as the “horrendous” airlift from Afghanistan.
USCIS on Nov 26 stopped processing
Trump pushes reverse migration
Mr Trump indicated that his administration’s goals are aimed at significantly reducing “illegal and disruptive populations”, suggesting that measures would be taken to achieve this outcome.
“Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation.”
Even though Lakanwal was in the country legally, the incident bolsters Mr Trump’s immigration agenda. Cracking down on both legal and illegal immigration has been a key focus of his presidency, and this case gave him an opportunity to broaden the debate beyond legality to include stricter vetting of immigrants.
Mr Trump has already deployed additional immigration officers to major US cities to achieve record deportation levels. Those targeted include any long-term residents and people with no criminal record.
Over two-thirds of the roughly 53,000 people arrested by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and detained as of Nov 15 had no criminal convictions, according to ICE statistics.
In his Thanksgiving video call with US troops, Mr Trump said: “I want to express the anguish and the horror of our entire nation at the terrorist attack yesterday in our nation’s capital.”
He linked the shooting and his decision to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
“If they weren’t effective, you probably wouldn’t have had this done,” he said, adding: “Maybe this man was upset because he couldn’t practise crime.”
The US attorney for Washington DC, Ms Jeanine Pirro, said Lakanwal had been living in the western state of Washington and drove across the country to the nation’s capital. In what she called a “brazen and targeted” attack, Ms Pirro said the gunman opened fire with a .357 Smith and Wesson revolver on a group of guardsmen on patrol just a few blocks from the White House.
The suspect was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill, charges that Ms Pirro said would immediately be upgraded to first-degree murder if any of the guardsmen died.
Officials said they still had no clear understanding
Afghan legacy
Mr John Ratcliffe, head of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), said the suspect was part of a CIA-backed “partner force”
The heads of the CIA, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security and other senior Trump appointees all insisted that Lakanwal was granted unvetted access to the US because of lax asylum policies in the wake of the chaotic final US withdrawal from Afghanistan under Mr Biden.
But AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the US after the military withdrawal, said they undergo “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants.
The group noted Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025 and would be eligible to request permanent residency a year later.
“This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” said its president, Mr Shawn VanDiver.
In the wake of the shooting, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth announced 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, bringing the total to 2,500.
Mr Trump has deployed troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis. The move has prompted multiple lawsuits and allegations of authoritarian overreach by the White House. REUTERS, AFP
