Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the State Department will halt all Afghan passport visas. (Getty Images)
LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONDING AFTER 2 NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS SHOT NEAR WHITE HOUSE
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also took to X to share the news.
"President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports," Rubio wrote in a post. "The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people."
U.S.-based Afghanistan allies relocation and resettlement nonprofit AfghanEvac denounced Friday's decision, calling the administration's move a "violation of federal law."
"It appears Secretary Rubio is attempting to shut down the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program in direct violation of federal law and standing court orders. He is seemingly acting at the direction of President Trump and Stephen Miller, and there is no doubt this is the outcome they have been driving toward for months," AfghanEvac President Shawn VanDiver said in a statement.
"They are using a single violent individual as cover for a policy they have long planned, turning their own intelligence failures into an excuse to punish an entire community and the veterans who served alongside them."
VANCE’S PAST WARNINGS REIGNITE AFTER AFGHAN NATIONAL NAMED AS SUSPECT IN DC GUARD SHOOTING
National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, were shot in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. Beckstrom died Thursday at a hospital. (United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia; Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Director Joseph B. Edlow also announced Thursday that, at Trump's direction, there would be a "full-scale, rigorous reexamination" of every green card issued to immigrants from "every country of concern."
The 19 countries deemed "high-risk" by the USCIS include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
Alexandra Koch is a Fox News Digital journalist who covers breaking news, with a focus on high-impact events that shape national conversation.
She has covered major national crises, including the L.A. wildfires, Potomac and Hudson River aviation disasters, Boulder terror attack, and Texas Hill Country floods.
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