U.S. President Donald Trump has ordered a broad review of asylum cases approved under former President Joe Biden and Green Cards issued to citizens of 19 countries, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials said.
The move comes after an Afghan immigrant, who entered the U.S. in 2021 under a resettlement program, was suspected of shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., leaving them in critical condition.
Hours after the incident, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) suspended all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
DHS said the review has been expanded to cover all asylum cases approved under the Biden administration. According to a U.S. government file, the alleged gunman was granted asylum this year under Trump.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow said he is directing a “full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern” at Trump’s request.
The administration has not specified which countries are considered “of concern,” but referred to the travel ban Trump imposed in June covering 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Burundi, Laos, Togo, Venezuela, Sierra Leone, and Turkmenistan.
Trump has called for a “re-examination” of all Afghan nationals admitted under Biden, citing the need to remove anyone who does not “add benefit to our country.”
Since returning to the White House, Trump has pursued an aggressive immigration agenda. A recent memo from Edlow orders a review of approximately 233,000 refugees admitted between January 2021 and February 2025. In late October, Trump set the refugee admissions cap for fiscal 2026 at a record-low 7,500, emphasizing the focus on white South Africans of Afrikaner descent.
