US to Reexamine All Green Cards from 19 ‘Countries of Concern’ After DC Guard Shooting
The Trump administration has ordered US immigration authorities to conduct a sweeping review of all green cards issued to people from 19 so-called “countries of concern,” intensifying its immigration crackdown in the wake of a deadly shooting involving National Guard troops in Washington, DC.
According to a statement cited by US media, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph Edlow said he had been instructed by the president to launch a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern.”
The move follows the identification of the suspected shooter as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, who is accused of opening fire on National Guard members near the White House. The attack left one soldier dead and another critically injured, triggering a renewed political and security debate over vetting of immigrants and refugees
19 Countries Targeted in New Review
USCIS said the review will cover green card holders from 19 nations already listed in a June presidential proclamation as presenting elevated security risks. Those countries include Afghanistan, Burma (Myanmar), Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Officials have not disclosed how many individuals could be affected, but the US currently has roughly 14 million lawful permanent residents. Civil-liberties groups warn that such a broad review could create significant uncertainty for hundreds of thousands of people who have lived legally in the United States for years.
Part of a Wider Crackdown on Immigration
The green card review is only one part of a broader policy shift announced by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In parallel, the administration is:
- Reassessing all asylum cases approved under President Joe Biden’s administration, according to DHS officials.
- Freezing new immigration requests from Afghan nationals, after the suspect was found to have entered under a post-2021 resettlement program linked to the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
- Launching a review of more than 233,000 refugees admitted between January 2021 and February 2025.
- Setting the US refugee cap for fiscal year 2026 at 7,500, a historically low ceiling that prioritizes certain categories of applicants, including white South Africans of Afrikaner ethnicity.
Supporters of the policy argue that the DC shooting shows earlier vetting systems were too lax and that the government must re-check past decisions to protect national security. Administration officials have repeatedly blamed what they describe as “reckless” resettlement policies under Biden for allowing in individuals they now consider high-risk.
Immigrant Communities Fear ‘Collective Punishment’
Immigrant-rights advocates and legal experts say the decision could amount to collective punishment based on nationality rather than individual conduct. They warn that lawful permanent residents from the 19 countries—many of whom have lived, worked and paid taxes in the US for years—may now face invasive scrutiny, uncertainty about their status and potential loss of benefits such as the ability to travel abroad.
Critics also note that green card holders have already passed multiple layers of security checks, and any new broad-based review could further strain an immigration system that is already dealing with long backlogs in processing routine applications.
While the administration insists the measures are temporary and driven by security needs, legal challenges are widely expected. Civil-rights groups are already examining whether the policy discriminates on the basis of national origin and whether it exceeds the president’s authority under existing immigration law.
What Comes Next
USCIS has not provided a detailed timeline for the reexamination process or clarified what outcomes green card holders might face if concerns are identified—ranging from additional interviews to potential revocation of status in extreme cases.
For now, millions of immigrants are watching closely, especially those from the 19 targeted countries, as the latest move underscores how quickly a single security incident can reshape US immigration policy and deepen the climate of uncertainty for lawful residents.
