British News Agency

The agency stated on X: “Protecting our homeland and the American people remains our main focus and mission.”

The decision came after two National Guard soldiers were critically injured in an armed attack near the White House. The alleged attacker was an Afghan citizen who entered the U.S. in September 2021.

President Donald Trump described the attack as a “terrorist act” and said he would take steps to deport “foreigners from any country who do not belong here.”

After the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 under former President Joe Biden, tens of thousands of Afghans entered the U.S. under special immigration protections.

Multiple law enforcement sources told CBS that the alleged gunman was 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the U.S. under the “Welcome Allies Operation.”

Trump stated after the attack that the U.S. must “re-review every foreigner who entered from Afghanistan during the Biden era.”

This latest decision comes in addition to the travel ban Trump imposed earlier this year on citizens of Afghanistan and 11 other countries.

Afghans holding Special Immigrant Visas—granted to individuals who worked directly with the U.S. military before the Taliban regained control in 2021—were among the few exceptions.

Trump also ended a program earlier this year that provided deportation protection for thousands of Afghans.

The Temporary Protected Status program allowed migrants to obtain work authorization if the U.S. government deemed returning to their country unsafe due to war.