US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that his administration plans to keep asylum decisions suspended for "a long time," after an Afghan national allegedly attacked two National Guard members near the White House, killing one.

Asked how long the pause would last, Trump said he didn't know. with in mind “a time limit” for the measure that, according to the Department of Homeland Security, is linked to a list of 19 countries that have travel restrictions to the United States. “We don’t want those people,” Trump said. “Do you know why we don’t want them? Because many of them haven’t been good, and they shouldn’t be in our country,” he added. The Trump administration froze asylum decisions after the November 26 shooting in Washington that killed 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and seriously wounded 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. The shooter was identified by authorities as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan man, who was arrested and faces first-degree murder charges. The suspect was granted asylum in April 2025 under the Trump administration, but according to the heads of the FBI, CIA, and Department of Homeland Security, Lakanwal entered the country without proper oversight due to lax asylum policies under the Joe Biden administration. Following the shooting, Trump wrote that he planned to “permanently pause immigration from all Third World countries to allow the American system to recover from complete.”

When asked which nationalities would be affected, the Department of Homeland Security cited a list of 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Haiti, Iran, and Burma, which have already faced travel restrictions to the United States since June.