WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Republicans on Thursday threatened to put an indefinite end to Muslim immigration, after a U.S. soldier was killed and another seriously injured in a recent shooting allegedly carried out by an Afghan national.
Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the U.S. National Guard, died from her injuries on Thursday after being shot near the White House a day earlier.
Her fellow serviceman, Andrew Wolfe, 24, who was also shot, remains in critical condition.
The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is a 29-year-old Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 and had previously worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan. He was shot by another service member and is in custody, local media reported.
The incident was met with a "furious" reaction from U.S. President Donald Trump and other Republicans, with some calling for an entire ban on Muslim immigration, according to U.S. media outlets.
"We must IMMEDIATELY BAN all ISLAM immigrants and DEPORT every single Islamist who is living among us just waiting to attack," said Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville on Wednesday in a post on social media platform X.
"We know the solution," posted another Republican lawmaker, Chip Roy. "Stop importing Islamists. Deport Islamists."
Trump said on Wednesday that the shooting underscores "the single greatest national security threat" facing the United States. "There is (are) a lot of problems with Afghans," he added.
In a press meeting at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday, he told reporters that "many of these people are criminals" who should not be allowed into the United States, without providing solid evidence for his claim.
He also threatened to take measures to reverse immigration decisions made under former President Joe Biden, and to "remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States."
The U.S. president also announced plans to end all federal benefits and subsidies to "noncitizens," calling for the denaturalization of migrants who, in his view, "undermine domestic tranquility."
The Trump administration was also mulling a permanent halt to immigration applications from Muslim-majority nations, according to officials.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) said that it has suspended all immigration processing related to Afghan nationals indefinitely.
Joseph Edlow, director of the USCIS, announced on Thursday that a thorough, rigorous re-examination will be carried out for all green card holders from 19 "countries of concern," most dominated by Muslims, as requested by Trump.
The expanding crackdown has sparked panic among refugees in the United States, many of whom fear arrest by immigration officers or becoming targets of hate speech amid rising xenophobia. Refugee groups have rejected blaming entire immigrant communities for the shooting.
The latest move marked another step in Trump's broader crackdown on immigration in the United States, which has remained a focus of his presidency.
In June, about 2,000 protests were staged across the United States, including in major cities like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, in response to Trump's decision to deploy military troops in Los Angeles to intensify raids on immigrants. ■