State Department Takes Action On Afghan Nationals Following Trump Pledge

WASHINGTON — The State Department took less than 24 hours to spring into action after President Donald Trump’s pledge to dramatically shake up the country’s immigration system.

State directed its posts to refuse visas to Afghan nationals using Afghan passports, according to a Friday guidance reviewed by The Daily Wire. The guidance orders diplomats and consular officers to refuse “all otherwise eligible Afghan nationals” whether they’re applying for a nonimmigrant visa, special immigrant visa, or immigrant visa.

It is intended to “ensure that such applications have undergone necessary security vetting and to validate screening protocols ensuring the applicant’s identity and eligibility for a visa under U.S. law,” the State Department guidance said, adding that there will be a further guidance on “updated enhanced vetting or screening measures that may be required for this purpose.”

The move comes after President Donald Trump promised to halt migration from third world countries, writing in a late night Thanksgiving post: “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country.”

The president’s pledge followed the shocking attack on National Guardsmen the day before Thanksgiving. An Afghan man killed a National Guardswoman and wounded another National Guardsman, both of whom had been deployed from West Virginia to Washington, D.C. to protect the nation’s capital. Twenty-year-old Sarah Beckstrom died from the attack on Friday, her family said. Twenty-four-year-old Andrew Wolfe is still in critical condition.

Police keep a presence following the shooting of two U.S. National Guard members near the White House in Washington, D.C., the United States, on Nov. 26, 2025. (Photo by Hu Yousong/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Both Beckstrom and Wolfe “were sworn in less than 24 hours before they were shot on the street in Washington,” United States Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro said in a Thursday morning press conference.

“They were uniformed members of the West Virginia National Guard, and they were in DC to keep DC safe pursuant to President Trump’s executive order to make DC safe and beautiful,” Pirro shared. “They answered the call, they took the charge, they volunteered, they put their lives on the line for people they don’t even know, and that unfortunately is becoming a reality more and more for the members of law enforcement.”

The gunman accused of shooting the two young guardsmen is 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, The Daily Wire previously reported, who was let into the country during President Joe Biden’s administration in 2021. Lakanwal was admitted as part of the former president’s “Operation Allies Welcome,” the Afghan refugee program in the wake of Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

Trump, in his late-night Thanksgiving post, argued that the “refugee burden is the leading cause of social dysfunction in America.”

“As an example, hundreds of thousands of refugees from Somalia are completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota,” the president said. “Somalian gangs are roving the streets looking for ‘prey’ as our wonderful people stay locked in their apartments and houses hoping against hope that they will be left alone.”

The president promised to pause migration from third-world countries, and to end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens and to “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization.”

“These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process,” Trump said. “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation. Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”

The guidance doesn’t apply to dual nationals who are applying with a passport of a different, non-Afghan nationality, the State Department said. More guidance on enhanced vetting or screening will follow for processing the non-immigrant and immigrant visa applicants who are applying with Afghan passports.

If they have already print-authorized nonimmigrant or immigrant cases for Afghan nationals who are applying with Afghan passports, but those visas have not yet been printed, they are instructed to refuse the cases and not print the visa. And in cases where the visas were already printed but not handed back, they must “spoil the foil, open the case in the system, and refuse the case.”