Afghans who fled the Taliban to resettle in Fort Worth face uncertainty as the Trump administration promises an immigration crackdown after this week’s shooting of two members of the National Guard in Washington, D.C.
The suspected shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is from Afghanistan and worked with the CIA during the U.S. war in that country. Hours after the shooting, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted on X that the agency will indefinitely stop “all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals.”
Many of the Afghans in Fort Worth are still waiting for their cases to be processed.
Angie Kraus, the founder of a nonprofit organization that assists refugees in Fort Worth, said she was shopping with an Afghan friend Friday morning when the woman learned about the USCIS announcement.
“She started crying in the store,” Kraus said Friday.
The woman has been in the U.S. since 2021 but still hasn’t received her permanent resident card, according to Kraus. Now it’s uncertain when that will happen.
Nearly 200,000 Afghans have sought safety in the U.S. since the Taliban returned to power in 2021. More than 1,000 of the new arrivals call Fort Worth home. The U.S. military and intelligence agencies relied on Afghans as translators and in other crucial roles during the 20-year war that made them targets after the Taliban takeover.
John Stettler told the Star-Telegram on Friday he’s “deeply concerned” over the impact the fallout from the shooting could have on these refugees. Stettler was giving a driving lesson to an Afghan when reached by phone Friday.
Stettler hasn’t heard much yet from local Afghans about Wednesday’s events, but he said many of them have been living in “very deep fear” since President Trump took office in January. In addition to cracking down on illegal immigration, Trump’s administration has revoked the legal status of thousands of migrants, including Afghans with Temporary Protected Status.
Stettler pointed to statistics which indicate that native-born Americans are much more prone to commit serious crimes than immigrants. Refugees and immigrants are more likely to become victims of violent crime, Stettler said. He’s concerned the response to Wednesday’s shooting will drive this vulnerable population further into the shadows.
“This will have the immigrant community even more scared of cooperating with police,” he said.
The D.C. shooter faces a murder charge after one of the victims, 20-year-old Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, died on Thanksgiving Day from her injuries. The other guardsman, 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, remains in critical condition. Both of them are from West Virginia and were deployed to the nation’s capital as part of Trump’s crackdown on crime.
The shooter’s motives still aren’t clear. Investigators believe he drove from Washington state for the attack.
AfghanEvac, a group of American veterans and Afghan allies, issued a statement Wednesday saying they were deeply saddened by the attack and called for the shooter to be held accountable.
“This individual alone is responsible for his actions,” the statement reads. “This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community.”
Harriet Ramos
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