REFUGEE aid workers in the United States said on Thursday that they are worried people who fled dangerous situations will face a backlash after Wednesday’s shooting of two National Guard soldiers by an Afghan national.

The shooting by Rahmanullah Lakanwal killed Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and left Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe hospitalised in critical condition.

Mr Lakanwal had worked in a special CIA-backed Afghan Army unit before emigrating from Afghanistan.

He applied for asylum during the Biden administration and his asylum was approved this year.

After the shooting, US President Donald Trump said his administration would review everyone who entered from the country under former president Joe Biden, a measure his administration had been planning even before the shooting.

Mr Trump said on Thursday that he will now “permanently pause migration” to the US from all “Third World countries.”

Posting to social media, he said that the decision would “allow the US system to fully recover” from immigration policies that had eroded the “gains and living conditions” of many US citizens.

He did not provide details of his plan or name which countries might be affected.

This appears to confirm the fears of migrant and refugees groups that they are now being considered guilty by association.

Many Afghans living in the US are afraid to leave their houses, fearing they’ll be swept up by immigration officials or attacked with hate speech, said Shawn VanDiver, president of the San Diego-based group #AfghanEvac, a group that helps resettle Afghans who assisted the US during the two-decade war.

“They’re terrified. It’s insane,” Mr VanDiver said on Thursday. “People are acting xenophobic because of one deranged man. He doesn’t represent all Afghans. He represents himself.”

Matthew Soerens, vice-president of World Relief, said: “Regardless of the alleged perpetrator’s nationality, religion or specific legal status, though, we urge our country to recognise these evil actions as those of one person, not to unfairly judge others.”