WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has halted all asylum decisions in the United States following the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow announced on Friday.

Edlow said the nationwide pause will remain in effect “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

The move came hours after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to “permanently pause migration” from what he called “third world countries.”

The rapid series of decisions follows Wednesday’s attack, which left one National Guard member dead and another in critical condition. Officials have accused an Afghan national of carrying out the shooting.

While the initial measures targeted Afghan nationals specifically, the latest directive is far broader.

According to CBS News, USCIS officers have been instructed not to approve, deny, or close asylum applications for any nationality. Officers may continue reviewing files but cannot issue final decisions.

The White House has not clarified how long the pause will last, nor which countries may be included in Trump’s proposed migration suspension.

The announcements immediately drew pushback from UN agencies and could face legal challenges.

The policy shift reflects Trump’s increasingly hard-line stance on immigration during his second presidential term. His administration has also moved to expand deportations of undocumented migrants, reduce refugee admissions, and end automatic citizenship for many born on U.S. soil.

Following Wednesday’s attack, the U.S. temporarily halted visas for Afghans applying through the same program used by the suspect and later suspended all Afghan immigration requests pending review.

On Thursday, USCIS said it would re-examine green cards issued to migrants from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, Somalia and Venezuela, under a June proclamation. The agency did not explain how the re-evaluation would work.

Trump later blamed refugees for what he described as “social dysfunction in America” and pledged to end all federal benefits for non-citizens, adding: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries.”

Human rights groups condemned the remarks. Jeremy McKinney, president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, said Trump was “scapegoating” migrants before investigations into the shooting have concluded.

The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, arrived in the U.S. in 2021 through a program granting protections to Afghans who worked alongside U.S. forces before the Taliban takeover. Officials say he served in a CIA-linked “Zero Unit” and would have undergone multiple layers of vetting. He was granted asylum after Trump returned to office, though his green card application remains pending.

Authorities say the investigation into the attack is ongoing. — Agencies