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.
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