After the tragic and fatal ambush of National Guard members, Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, by Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a CIA-vetted asylum seeker who entered America during the Biden years, the State Department paused all Afghan passport visas to safeguard American security.
Providing context for the massive decision, Secretary Rubio explained that security is his highest priority. However, a leftist NGO called AfghanEvac decried the decision as unlawful retaliation against American allies, clutching its pearls and blaming Trump. The president, for his part, dismissed the attack as an inevitable “cuckoo” incident, vowing mass deportations. Meanwhile, USCIS launched a sweeping green card review for 19 high-risk nations, halting processing for Afghans.
Springing into action, the Department of State issued an announcement. “The Department of State has IMMEDIATELY paused visa issuance for individuals traveling on Afghan passports. The Department is taking all necessary steps to protect U.S. national security and public safety,” the statement read, Fox News Digital reports.
Echoing these points, Secretary of State Marco Rubio took to X, formerly Twitter, to say, “President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports. The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people.”
However, AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver issued a handwringing statement decrying this decision.”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. He is seemingly acting at the direction of President Trump and Stephen Miller, and there is no doubt this is the outcome they have been driving toward for months,” the entitled activist whined, as reported by Fox News Digital.
Concluding his rant, he claimed, “They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them.”
Explaining his decision, President Donald Trump told reporters why he made the call. “I mean, he went nuts, and that happens. It happens too often with these people. There was no vetting or anything. … We have a lot of others in this country, and we’re going to get them out, but they go cuckoo,” Trump declared.
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Additionally, he noted, “Something happens to them. … When it comes to asylum, when they’re flown in, it’s very hard to get them out. No matter how you want to do it, it’s very hard to get them out. But we’re going to be getting them all out now.”
Digging into the details of the response, USCIS Director Joseph B. Edlow said that at Trump’s direction, there would be a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination” of every green card issued to immigrants from “every country of concern.”
Providing another look at the serious threats facing our nation, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin posted on social media. “Just one day before the Terrorist attack against our @NationalGuard, another Afghan national who was paroled into the United States under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome was arrested for threatening to blow up a building in Fort Worth… @ICEgov has lodged a detainer,” she explained.
Watch a brief FNC report on the USCIS decision here: