Trump pauses all asylum applications, halts visas for Afghans

ERIC LEE / NEW YORK TIMES

Flowers and an American flag left at the scene Thursday where two members of the National Guard a day earlier in Washington. The U.S. on Friday paused all asylum decisions and stopped issuing visas to people from Afghanistan in the aftermath of the shooting.

WASHINGTON >> The United States on Friday paused all asylum decisions and stopped issuing visas to people from Afghanistan as President Donald Trump launched a major review of the country’s immigration system after the shooting of two National Guard members.

Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a statement that his agency had “halted all asylum decisions until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”

Trump cut the number of asylum claims dramatically by moving to seal the southern border when he took office. Friday’s decision affects people who already are in the United States and believe they would face persecution if they returned to their home country.

The State Department also announced Friday night that it was halting visas for Afghans, including those who had helped the United States during the war in their country.

The decisions come as Trump steps up his anti-immigration policies after a gunman, identified by the authorities as an Afghan national, shot two members of the National Guard on Wednesday in Washington, just blocks from the White House.

The suspect, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the United States through a temporary program set up to manage the immigration of Afghan nationals fleeing Taliban rule. He obtained asylum in April, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly.

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The State Department formally instructed its diplomats to stop processing all immigrant and nonimmigrant visas for Afghan passport holders, according to a copy of a cable obtained by The New York Times. Diplomats are supposed to conduct any scheduled visa interviews, but not grant the visas. If visas have been approved and printed but not handed to the applicant, diplomats should destroy the printed visas, the cable says.

The order by Secretary of State Marco Rubio freezes the Special Immigrant Visa program for Afghans, which had been set up for people who had helped the U.S. military and government in the war. All applicants had undergone official vetting. As the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan grew closer in 2021, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers had pushed to expedite Special Immigrant Visas for those who had helped the Americans. Afghans entering the United States under that program or as refugees all went through a rigorous vetting process; the ones with Special Immigrant Visas got green cards after arriving.

“It appears Secretary Rubio is attempting to shut down the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program in direct violation of federal law and standing court orders,” Shawn VanDiver, the head of AfghanEvac, a group that tries to resettle Afghans in the United States, said in a statement. “Our hearts are absolutely broken for our Afghan allies, who have already endured more trauma, loss, and sacrifice than most Americans can imagine.”

Afghan refugee applications had been frozen months earlier, in a blanket refugee ban. Trump then issued a travel ban in June on 19 countries that included Afghanistan, but there has been an exception for applicants for Special Immigrant Visas. With this latest action, the final legal entrance for Afghans outside the United States has been closed.

In recent days, officials also announced that they were reviewing green cards given to people from countries banned from travel to the United States by the administration, pausing all immigration applications from Afghan immigrants and beginning a review of asylum requests granted during the Biden administration.

“The protection of this country and of the American people remains paramount, and the American people will not bear the cost of the prior administration’s reckless resettlement policies,” Edlow wrote on social media in announcing the green card review Thursday. “American safety is non negotiable.”

The asylum system in the United States has long experienced backlogs. As USCIS became overwhelmed by border crossings in recent years, applications for asylum filed inside the United States grew.

A July 2024 report by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general found that at the end of the 2023 fiscal year, USCIS had more than 1 million asylum cases pending determination.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

© 2025 The New York Times Company

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