President of the United States, Donald Trump, has announced that the ongoing pause on asylum decisions will remain in effect “for a long time,” following the fatal shooting of two National Guard members near the White House last week.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he had set “no time limit” for lifting the suspension, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says is tied to existing travel restrictions placed on 19 countries.
“We don’t want those people,” Trump said when asked to clarify the scope of the measure. “Many have been no good, and they shouldn’t be in our country.”
The policy was introduced after the November 26 shooting in Washington, D.C., which resulted in the death of 20-year-old National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and left another officer critically injured.
Authorities have arrested 29-year-old Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, and charged him with first-degree murder.
According to investigators, Lakanwal previously served as part of a CIA-supported partner force combating the Taliban in Afghanistan. He was later admitted into the United States under a resettlement programme following the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Although he was granted asylum in April 2025 under Trump’s administration, officials have attributed his initial entry into the country to what they described as “lax vetting” during the Biden administration’s evacuation efforts.
In a statement released after the incident, Trump said he intended to “permanently pause migration from all Third World countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover.”
When pressed for details on which nationalities would be affected, DHS referred to a list of 19 countries—among them Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran and Myanmar—that have been subject to U.S. travel restrictions since June.