(NewsNation) — The Trump administration is exploring the possibility of deporting the family of the man suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
FBI agents have accused Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, of opening fire Wednesday near the White House, leaving one Guard member dead and the other in critical condition.
On Thursday, NewsNation’s Libbey Dean asked President Donald Trump if he plans to deport Lakanwal’s wife and five children, who live in Washington state.
“Well, we’re looking at that right now. We’re looking at the whole situation with family. Tragic situation,” Trump told Dean.
Investigators said Lakanwal worked with the CIA in his native country before immigrating to the U.S. in 2021. He entered the country under Operation Allies Welcome during the Biden administration and later applied for asylum, which was granted by the Trump administration.
The White House said it would reexamine green cards issued to citizens of 19 countries, and Citizenship and Immigration Services has since suspended all immigration applications from Afghan nationals.
“At the direction of @POTUS, I have directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” Joseph Edlow, the agency’s director, wrote on social platform X.
On Thursday, Trump announced on social media that he plans to “permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.” He did not name any specific countries in the post.
Groups such as Afghan Evac, which works to resettle people from Afghanistan who have served alongside U.S. troops, are concerned Afghan allies may now be unfairly targeted by new immigration policies because of the shooting.
“We can’t let the actions of one deranged individual totally vilify an entire population,” Shawn VanDiver, president of Afghan Evac, told “Morning in America.”