by John Solomon
As many as 85,000 Afghans came into the country quickly without complete vetting.
The ambush shooting that critically wounded two National Guard troops patrolling near the White House confirmed the worst fears about President Joe Biden‘s decision to lightly vet Afghan refugees he let into the country after his bungled withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan four years ago.
The Homeland Security Department confirmed late Wednesday that the man suspected of shooting the two West Virginia National Guardsmen was a 29-year-old Afghan national named Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the United States in 2021 under a controversial Biden-era visa parole program called Operation Allies Welcome after working with U.S. agencies during the war, including the CIA.
The program was widely criticized by members of Congress for allowing as many as 85,000 Afghans to come into the country quickly without complete vetting, and officials said Lakanwal was among those to enter during that timeframe.
“The suspect who shot our brave National Guardsmen is an Afghan national who was one of the many unvetted, mass paroled into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome on September 8, 2021, under the Biden Administration,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
Just hours after the attack, the Trump administration on Wednesday night paused all immigration processing for Afghan nationals.
"Processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols," the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced.
“The protection and safety of our homeland and of the American people remains our singular focus and mission,” the agency added.
President Donald Trump condemned the shooting and blamed his predecessor Joe Biden.
"We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country," the president said.
The Biden administration claimed that they vetted 99% of all the Afghan evacuees into the United States, but a Homeland Security Department inspector general report in 2022 directly debunked that claim, and warned the process was flawed, incomplete and had injected security risk into the United States.
"We determined some information used to vet evacuees through U.S. Government databases, such as name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing," the devastating report declared. "We also determined CBP admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States."
You can read that report here.
Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind., one of the earliest lawmakers to raise concerns about Biden‘s weak vetting of Afghan nationals after the bungled withdrawal of American troops in August 2021, called for the immediate deportation of any Afghan national still in the country who could not pass security vetting now.
“The Trump Administration should deport any and all Afghan nationals found without legal status. Likewise, refugees with legal status, but who fail to pass vetting standards, should have their status revoked and be deported,” Banks said.
A relative of the alleged shooter told NBC News that they both served alongside the U.S. Army during the Afghanistan war.
“We were the ones that were targeted by the Taliban in Afghanistan,” the relative told NBC.
“I cannot believe it that he might do this,” the relative added.
The alleged gunman also worked with a CIA-backed paramilitary unit during the U.S. war in Afghanistan, Director John Ratcliffe revealed Thursday.
Just days before the tragic incident in Washington on Wednesday, USCIS began a systemic review of all refugees let into the country by the Biden administration on the grounds that there was not adequate vetting.
"USCIS has determined that a comprehensive review and a re-interview of all refugees admitted from January 20, 2021, to February 20, 2025, is warranted," a memo first reported by Reuters said. "When appropriate, USCIS will also review and re-interview refugees admitted outside this timeframe."
John Solomon
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/ambush-national-guard-near-white-house-tied-bungled-biden-vetting-afghans
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