While denouncing Wednesday’s “deeply tragic” shooting death in Washington, DC, Afghans residing in the US have emphasized that the suspect, who immigrated to the US from Afghanistan four years ago, does not speak for them.
After the US withdrew its troops from Afghanistan in 2021, a program that provided special visa protections to Afghans who served with the US allowed the alleged gunman, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, to enter the country.
In reaction, US President Donald Trump has threatened a broader crackdown on migrants from what he refers to as “third-world countries,” stopped processing all immigration requests from Afghans, and ordered a review of green cards awarded to people from 19 other countries.
While expressing sympathy for the victims’ families, the Afghan Community Coalition of the United States called for a “comprehensive investigation” and urged the US government to avoid delaying or suspending Afghan immigration claims. The coalition’s statement, “Twenty years of Afghan-US partnership must not be forgotten,” alluded to the US’s two-decade campaign in 2001 to topple the Taliban and build security in Afghanistan.
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