The Afghan man accused of shooting two national guard members in Washington DC will face a first-degree murder charge for the attack that has since claimed the life of one of the soldiers, Sarah Beckstrom.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the US in 2021 under a program established by former president Joe Biden's administration to resettle Afghans who assisted the US during the Afghan war and was later granted asylum under US President Donald Trump.
US attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro said on Fox News on Friday that other charges would also be filed against the 29-year-old Afghan, who allegedly ambushed the two soldiers from the West Virginia national guard near the White House on Wednesday.
The other soldier, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, is still in hospital in a critical condition.
The two soldiers were in Washington as part of Trump's deployment of the military in recent months to help the police fight crime in the city.
The attack had prompted Trump to "permanently pause" migration from all "third world countries", although he did not identify any countries in the "permanent ban" by name nor explain what he meant by third-world countries or "permanently pause".
UN agencies have since responded, asking the US to continue to allow asylum seekers access to the country and due process.
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."
"When people who need protection arrive in their territory, they have to have a due process of asylum. And then they have to have access to territory," UN refugee agency spokesperson Eujin Byun said, adding that the overwhelming majority of refugees are law-abiding members of the host community.
Trump labelled the shooting a "terrorist attack" during a call with US military service members on Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday.
National guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe were shot in Washington DC on Wednesday. Source: EPA / Will Oliver
Trump blames immigration
Since taking office this year, Trump has stepped up arrests of immigrants, including some in the US legally, and cracked down on unlawful border crossings and stripped legal status from hundreds of thousands of people.
"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," Trump said in his social media posts on Thursday after the shooting.
He has sought to revive his criticisms of former US president Joe Biden's cognitive state, saying that he would be cancelling executive orders Biden had signed with an autopen, even though that was a tool that US presidents have used for decades, particularly to meet authorisation deadlines.
After taking office in 2021, Biden reversed many of the restrictive immigration policies of Trump's first term, saying they blocked people in need of humanitarian protection and were discriminatory.
On Thursday, Homeland Security officials said Trump had ordered a review of asylum cases approved under the Biden administration and permanent-residency green cards issued to citizens of the 19 countries, which include Afghanistan.
The US Citizenship and Immigration Services has stopped processing all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Trump said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for "noncitizens", adding he would "denaturalise migrants who undermine domestic tranquillity" and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk, or "non-compatible with Western civilisation".
Jorge Loweree, American Immigration Council managing director of programs and strategy, said the president does not have the authority to make permanent changes to the immigration system, which is codified by Congress.
He warned of chaos and disarray in the US immigration system even if Trump is ultimately blocked by federal courts.
UN and international groups defend asylum seeker rights
Deputy spokesperson for the UN secretary general Farhan Haq said the agency expected all countries, including the US to honour their commitments under the 1953 Refugee Convention.
Jasmin Lilian Diab, director of the Institute for Migration at the Lebanese American University, said freezing Afghan applications or reconsidering thousands of approved asylum claims would disrupt families and local communities.
"While the recent incident is tragic, using an isolated incident to justify mass restrictions is inconsistent with evidence showing no link between refugee arrivals and increased crime," Diab said in an interview.
Before arriving in the US, Lakanwal was part of a CIA-backed unit in Afghanistan. He settled in the US through Biden's Operation Allies Welcome, the program that protected Afghans who feared reprisals by the Taliban forces.
Investigators said Lakanwal drove across the country from his home in the state of Washington and shot the two soldiers with a .357 Magnum revolver before being wounded in an exchange of gunfire with other troops.
Lakanwal lives in Washington state with his wife and five children, according to the investigators. Asked whether he was planning to deport the suspect's family, Trump said: "We're looking at the whole situation with family."
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