United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) declared on Wednesday evening that every single immigration application, parole extension, adjustment of status, and humanitarian benefit request involving Afghan nationals has been suspended indefinitely, effective immediately, following a terrorist attack carried out by an Afghan national mere blocks from the White House.

The decision came within hours of 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan citizen who entered the United States under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome mass-parole programme on September 8, 2021, allegedly opening fire at point-blank range on two uniformed West Virginia National Guard members deployed to Washington DC, wounding both in what law enforcement sources have classified as a deliberate act of terrorism.

President Donald Trump, speaking from his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida where he is spending the Thanksgiving holiday, confirmed the attacker’s foreign origin and parole status, describing Afghanistan as a “hell hole on earth” and vowing that the incident would mark the final chapter of unchecked Afghan resettlement policies initiated after the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Kabul.

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Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the blanket freeze in stark terms, stating that the Department “will no longer process any immigration benefit for Afghan nationals until an exhaustive, top-to-bottom review of vetting and security protocols is completed,” adding that the safety of the American homeland and its citizens remains the singular, non-negotiable priority of the administration.

The abrupt shutdown has instantly frozen tens of thousands of pending cases and parole extensions, effectively terminating pathways that had allowed over 100,000 Afghans to enter and remain in the United States since 2021, as President Trump condemned the attack as “monstrous” and “an act of pure evil,” pledging that the nation will never again import individuals who turn their weapons on American troops on the streets of the capital.

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