UN agencies yesterday appealed to Washington to continue allowing asylum seekers access to the country and be given due process after US President Donald Trump vowed to freeze migration from “third world” countries after an attack near the White House.
The comments mark a further escalation of migration measures Trump has ordered since the shooting on Wednesday that investigators said was carried out by an Afghan national who entered the US in 2021.
“They are entitled to protection under international law, and that should be given due process,” UN human rights office spokesman Jeremy Laurence said.
Photo: AP
UN refugee agency spokeswoman Eujin Byun echoed those remarks, saying: “When people who need protection arrive in their territory, they have to have a due process of asylum. And then they have to have access to territory.”
The overwhelming majority of refugees are law-abiding members of the host community, she added.
Trump on Thursday said he would suspend migration from what he called “third world countries,” after two US National Guard soldiers were shot, killing one.
He also threatened to reverse “millions” of admissions granted under former US president Joe Biden.
Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old West Virginia National Guard member deployed in Washington as part of his crackdown on crime, had died from her wounds, Trump said.
The other soldier wounded in Wednesday’s attack, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, was “fighting for his life,” he said.
The suspected shooter was also in a serious condition.
Trump linked the shooting and his decision to send hundreds of National Guard troops to the city.
“If they weren’t effective, you probably wouldn’t have had this done,” he said. “Maybe this man was upset because he couldn’t practice crime.”
US Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said he had ordered a “full scale, rigorous reexamination of every green card for every alien from every country of concern.”
US Attorney Jeanine Pirro said the suspected assailant — identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal — had driven across the country to the capital.
The gunman opened fire on a group of guardsmen on patrol just a few blocks from the White House, she said.
The suspect was charged with three counts of assault with intent to kill, which would be upgraded to first-degree murder should either of the wounded troops die, she added.
IN THE NATIONAL INTEREST: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said the strengthening of military facilities would help to maintain security in the Taiwan Strait Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi, visiting a military base close to Taiwan, said plans to deploy missiles to the post would move forward as tensions smolder between Tokyo and Beijing. “The deployment can help lower the chance of an armed attack on our country,” Koizumi told reporters on Sunday as he wrapped up his first trip to the base on the southern Japanese island of Yonaguni. “The view that it will heighten regional tensions is not accurate.” Former Japanese minister of defense Gen Nakatani in January said that Tokyo wanted to base Type 03 Chu-SAM missiles on Yonaguni, but little progress
DETERMINATION: Beijing’s actions toward Tokyo have drawn international attention, but would likely bolster regional coordination and defense networks, the report said Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s administration is likely to prioritize security reforms and deterrence in the face of recent “hybrid” threats from China, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said. The bureau made the assessment in a written report to the Legislative Yuan ahead of an oral report and questions-and-answers session at the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The key points of Japan’s security reforms would be to reinforce security cooperation with the US, including enhancing defense deployment in the first island chain, pushing forward the integrated command and operations of the Japan Self-Defense Forces and US Forces Japan, as
‘BEST RESULT’: Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu said that Donald Trump’s silence on the issue signaled that Taiwan was not being treated as a bargaining chip “Reunification” with China is “not an option” for Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, after Chinese state media reported that the issue was brought up in a telephone call between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump. “We have noted this significant international exchange, but we must reiterate that the Republic of China (Taiwan) is a fully sovereign and independent country,” Cho said at the legislature when reporters asked him about the issue. “The 23 million people of Taiwan do not have a ‘reunification’ option. This is very clear. Taiwan is the world’s Taiwan,” Cho said. Trump and Xi
NO CHANGES: A Japanese spokesperson said that Tokyo remains consistent and open for dialogue, while Beijing has canceled diplomatic engagements A Japanese official blasted China’s claims that Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has altered Japan’s position on a Taiwan crisis as “entirely baseless,” calling for more dialogue to stop ties between Asia’s top economies from spiraling. China vowed to take resolute self-defense against Japan if it “dared to intervene militarily in the Taiwan Strait” in a letter delivered Friday to the UN. “I’m aware of this letter,” said Maki Kobayashi, a senior Japanese government spokeswoman. “The claim our country has altered its position is entirely baseless,” she said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Johannesburg on Saturday. The Chinese Ministry
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