Donald Trump‘s Homeland Security Secretary has revealed plans for a ‘full travel ban’ on countries that are sending ‘killers, leeches and entitlement junkies’ to the United States after a meeting with the president.

Kristi Noem did not specify which countries would be banned but her announcement follows an attack on two National Guard members in Washington DC last week.

‘I just met with the President. I am recommending a full travel ban on every damn country that’s been flooding our nation with killers, leeches, and entitlement junkies,’ Noem wrote on social media. 

‘Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom – not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to AMERICANS. WE DON’T WANT THEM. NOT ONE.’

Trump has shared Noem’s post to his own Truth Social page in an apparent endorsement. 

Her plan comes after Trump announced a halt to all immigration from Afghanistan, including decisions on refugee status in the wake of the attack in the nation’s capital on Wednesday. 

Trump has also vowed to ‘permanently pause migration’ from all Third World countries and has announced that immigrants who hail from 19 countries covered by his travel ban will have their cases re-examined. 

The countries include Afghanistan, Iran, Somalia, Haiti, Sudan, Yemen, Libya and Venezuela, among others. 

Noem is a close ally of Trump who previously served as Governor of South Dakota before joining Trump’s administration in 2025. As head of Homeland Security, she oversees the agencies responsible for immigration control, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Since Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the agency has launched an intensified crackdown that has been described by officials as the toughest enforcement effort in years. 

Arrest teams have been carrying out more workplace raids and neighbourhood sweeps, and there has been a significant increase in deportation flights to countries across Latin America, Africa and Asia.

According to investigations by US media and human rights groups, there has been a sharp rise in the number of migrants held for long periods in ICE facilities. There has also been concern over the growing use of solitary confinement, which watchdogs say has reached record levels.

Supporters of the policy argue that the crackdown is needed to restore control of the border and remove criminals

Meanwhile, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been named as the alleged gunman in custody over the horror shoot-out at Farragut West metro station in the centre of Washington, DC, which has left two soldiers in a critical condition. 

The dad-of-five is facing first degree murder charges after Sarah Beckstrom, a 20-year-old member of the West Virginia National Guard, succumbed to her injuries on Thanksgiving Day. Her colleague Andrew Woolfe, 24, was critically wounded in the ambush-style shooting and is still fighting for his life. 

Law enforcement sources initially told NBC News the gunman has been identified as an Afghan national and the shooting is being investigated as a possible act of terror.

He allegedly came to the United States during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 under Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome, sources told The New York Post. 

The operation sought to resettle vulnerable Afghans, including those who assisted the US during the war. It is understood Lakanwal was residing in Bellingham, Washington.

Biden long defended the catastrophic withdrawal, which cost 13 Americans their lives and weakened the US-backed Afghan government against the Taliban, ultimately allowing the terror group to seize control again. 

Donald Trump vowed that ‘the animal’ who shot the troops ‘will pay a very steep price’. The suspect was shot during the shoot-out and is being treated in hospital, authorities said. 

Police have since recovered a handgun from the scene which they believe was used in the attack, according to CNN. The FBI, ATF and Secret Service swarmed on the scene as a helicopter landed on the National Mall to evacuate one of the wounded National Guardsmen. 

Trump has deployed 2,300 National Guard troops into DC since August as part of his promise to crack down on rampant crime in the nation’s capital. 

The president ordered an additional 500 troops to deploy following the shooting on Wednesday, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said, calling it a ‘cowardly, dastardly act, targeting the best of America’.

After the shooting, the president wrote on Truth Social: ‘God bless our Great National Guard, and all of our Military and Law Enforcement. 

‘These are truly Great People. I, as President of the United States, and everyone associated with the Office of the Presidency, am with you!’ Law enforcement sources told CNN that the suspected shooter is not cooperating with cops. 

Lakanwal appeared to target the soldiers, firing first at one of the guardsmen who was mere feet away, according to the sources. The suspect then allegedly fired at the other guardsman who tried to get behind a bus stop shelter.