Trump Continues US Immigration Crackdown After DC Shooting

United States President Donald Trump has outlined the next steps in his immigration crackdown after a fatal shooting on two National Guard members.

The shooting took place in Washington DC, the US capital, on Wednesday afternoon, with a suspect ambushing two National Guard members just a few blocks away from the White House. Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old, and Andrew Wolfe, a 24-year-old, were both members of the West Virginia National Guard and had been deployed under Trump's plan to protect the streets of DC using over 2,000 deployed guardmembers.

Beckstrom died the following day after being hospitalized, and Wolfe remains in critical condition after undergoing surgery to attempt to save his life. At the time, Trump expressed his outrage over the shooting and vowed to hold the perpetrator responsible for the crime.

Later, authorities identified the suspect, who injured himself in the attack and was quickly arrested after the incident. He was identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghani immigrant who entered the US during former President Joe Biden's term. According to officials, he previously worked with the CIA on missions in Afghanistan, and was allowed into the country for a two-year term but received asylum earlier this year.

Following the identification of the suspect, Trump announced that his administration would be tightening immigration laws and more effectively vetting any foreigner who entered the country, specifically 19 countries on which he placed a travel ban earlier this year– total bans on Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen and partial bans on Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. Any green card that has been issued to a resident of these 19 countries will also be re-evaluated to determine whether they are still eligible to remain in the United States.

However, he also announced that they would be temporarily halting all immigration from "third-world countries," but it remained unclear as to which exact nations he was referring to and how long the stoppage would be.

Trump also deployed 500 additional National Guard troops to Washington DC, claiming that the situation remains out of control in the city and the military continues to be necessary to prevent further violence.

Fact of the Day (The Fact Site): All the paint on the Eiffel Tower weighs around the same as ten elephants. The tower gets repainted every seven years without closing to the public.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see. (Arthur Schopenhauer)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Cornucopia (noun, kor-nuh-KOH-pee-uh) - A cornucopia, also known as a horn of plenty, is a curved, hollow goat’s horn or similarly shaped receptacle (such as a horn-shaped basket) that is overflowing, especially with fruit and vegetables. The image of a cornucopia is commonly used as decoration and as a symbol of abundance, but the word cornucopia is today more often encountered in its metaphorical use referring to an overflowing abundance, or to a seemingly inexhaustible amount of something.

In a Sentence: The zoo’s new aviary is a veritable cornucopia of color and sound, with scores of different bird species swooping and squawking through the canopy.

Image credit to AP