Washington DC - President Donald Trump's administration on Thursday said it would review green cards issued to all nationals from countries "of concern," a day after two National Guard members were shot in Washington.

Joseph Edlow, director of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), said on X that he had directed "a full scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern" at the direction of Trump. He did not initially specify which nationalities would be targeted

A USCIS news release cited "19 high-risk countries" without listing them, but linked to a June presidential decree announcing entry bans for people coming from 12 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, and Somalia, and a partial restriction of entry for nationals of a further seven countries, including Cuba and Venezuela.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration said processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals would be suspended "effective immediately," following the shooting of two National Guard members not far from the White House. One of them, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, has since died.

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The main suspect is Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who had been living in Bellingham in the north-western state of Washington with his wife and five children, according to Jeanine Pirro, US attorney for the District of Columbia.

The motive for the attack was initially unclear. Lakanwal had previously worked with the US Army and the CIA in Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in the US in 2021 after the US military withdrawal.

Shortly after the incident, Trump said that "every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under [then-US president Joe] Biden," would be re-examined.

Lakanwal had his asylum request granted this year, after the Republican returned to the White House.