LEILA FADEL, HOST:
The White House is moving fast to tighten legal immigration reviews after last week's shooting of two National Guard members here in Washington.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
The suspect is Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who's been charged with first-degree murder. He was granted asylum earlier this year after coming to the U.S. under a Biden-era program that facilitated temporary legal status for people who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan. In just a few minutes, we'll hear about what kind of vetting process he would have went through. We start, though, with more about the president's changes to immigration policy.
FADEL: NPR's Ximena Bustillo covers immigration policy for us and joins me now. Good morning.
XIMENA BUSTILLO, BYLINE: Good morning.
FADEL: What are the changes the administration announced after the shooting?
BUSTILLO: We're going to be talking about a few different types of immigration processes. First, the administration paused all asylum decisions and also visa reviews for people from Afghanistan. An order from the State Department also pauses the Special Immigrant Visa for Afghans, which is a specific program for those who helped the U.S. military and its allies. To be clear, the suspect was not on that visa but, like you mentioned, had been granted asylum earlier this year under the Trump administration. Second, Joseph Edlow, the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said anyone who applies for a green card from one of 19 countries on a list will face heightened scrutiny, and that list includes Afghanistan. Trump officials argue that those who came to the U.S. under former President Biden through these legal processes were not vetted properly. Still, in an interview with NBC's "Meet The Press," Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said investigators have other leads.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")
KRISTI NOEM: But I will say we believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country. We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members - to talk to them. So far, we've had some participation.
BUSTILLO: So it's unclear what prior vetting could have uncovered.
FADEL: OK. What other restrictions is the administration talking about?
BUSTILLO: These changes came days after the administration said it would review refugee status of those already living in the U.S. A refugee is a person outside the U.S. who is forced to flee their home country due to violence, persecution or other issues that put them in danger. The process can take years of vetting before someone is approved to enter the U.S. Now the administration is reconsidering those already here.
I obtained a memo issued by the director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services late last month. That memo calls for reviewing all refugees admitted into the country under the Biden administration, essentially reopening their cases. They may need to be reinterviewed, and some may lose their status. The memo says the agency should, quote, "only admit refugees that can fully and appropriately assimilate." Immigration advocates have called the recent changes on refugee reviews, visa and green card applications deeply destabilizing to families already in the U.S.
FADEL: And that's very broad, refugees who can fully and appropriately assimilate. What about asylum cases from other countries?
BUSTILLO: Right. Asylum, a different process. And as I mentioned, all asylum applications were paused after the shooting. During that interview yesterday with NBC's "Meet The Press," Noem said asylum reviews would restart when the agency has, quote, "dealt with the backlog." There is a 1-million-case backlog at USCIS. For now, the administration is likely to continue to scrutinize not just those who want to come to the U.S., but also those who are already here.
FADEL: Thank you. That's NPR's Ximena Bustillo.
BUSTILLO: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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