President Donald Trump says he wants to “permanently pause migration” from poorer nations and is promising to seek to expel millions of immigrants from the United States by revoking their legal status. He is blaming immigrants for problems from crime to housing shortages as part of “social dysfunction” in America and demanding “REVERSE MIGRATION.”
His most severe social media post against immigration since returning to the Oval Office in January came after two National Guard members were shot while patrolling the streets of the nation’s capital under his orders. One died and the other is in critical condition. Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, announced Friday that charges against the suspect had been upgraded to first-degree murder.
Since the shooting not far from the White House, administration officials have pledged to reexamine millions of legal immigrants, building on a 10-month campaign to reduce the immigrant population. In a lengthy social media post late Thursday, the Republican president asserted that millions of people born outside the U.S. and now living in the country bore a large share of the blame for America’s societal ills.
Here’s what to know:
The National Guard members: Trump announced Thursday evening that Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, had died from her injuries. Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in critical condition. The two had been deployed to Washington, D.C., since August, according to the West Virginia National Guard. Gov. Patrick Morrisey requested all West Virginians observe a statewide moment of silence or prayer at 2:15 p.m. Friday to honor the two.The suspect: Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who worked with the CIA during the Afghanistan War, is facing charges. The suspect’s motive is not yet clear. Lakanwal came to the U.S. as part of a program to resettle those who had helped American troops after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He applied for asylum during the Biden administration, but his asylum was approved under the Trump administration, #AfghanEvac said in a statement.Trump blames immigrants for America’s problems: While the president said on Truth Social that “most” foreign-born U.S. residents are “on welfare, from failed nations, or from prisons, mental institutions, gangs, or drug cartels,” multiple studies have found that the roughly 50 million foreign-born residents in the U.S. are generally less likely to commit crimes than people who were born in the country.