US halts all asylum decisions after National Guard shooting

Trump administration says decisions paused until government can ensure ‘every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible’

The Trump administration has announced it is halting all asylum decisions in the wake of the National Guard shooting in Washington DC, according to a senior immigration official.

Joseph Edlow, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a post on X on Friday that asylum decisions would be paused “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible”.