More than 5,000 Afghans brought to the US after American forces withdrew from the country got flagged for “national security” issues, Department of Homeland Security data obtained by The Post reveals.
In all, the feds uncovered “potential derogatory information” on a total of 6,868 people who came from Afghanistan as part of President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
Of that number, 5,005 came up with a national security concern, while 956 people had “public safety” concerns and 876 were flagged for fraud, according to the data.
DHS provided the information to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, after he posed a series of questions to the Homeland Security Department in May 2024.
While various US agencies were able to resolve many of the red flags, as of September there were still 885 people with potentially negative national security information – posing a possible threat.
Following Wednesday’s shocking ambush of two National Guards members in Washington DC, President Trump ordered a review of security and vetting protocols for migrants from 19 “high-risk” countries, along with all asylum cases approved by the prior administration.
The startling data comes to light just days after suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly killed National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and left Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, hospitalized in critical condition.
For years, Grassley has been pressing the FBI and DHS about “glaring red flags” in the program that brought more than 70,000 Afghans to the US following the botched 2021 troop withdrawal.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem provided the information in a Sept. 9 letter to the lawmaker, three days after the agency’s Inspector General reported it found DHS “encountered obstacles to screen, vet and inspect all evacuees.” --->READ MORE HERE
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national suspected of shooting two National Guard members in a Washington, DC terror attack Wednesday, was allowed into the US under a Biden-era resettlement program that Republican lawmakers long warned could pose a threat to Americans.
The alleged shooter was among roughly 90,000 Afghans allowed entry into the US under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) and Operation Allies Refuge (OAR) programs, which provided the foreign nationals immigration processing and resettlement support.
Lakanwal, 29, entered under Operation Allies Welcome in September 2021 – amid the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan – and resettled in Bellingham, Washington, law enforcement sources told The Post.
The majority of those Afghan refugees, about 73,500, were granted a two-year parole by the Biden administration – and some later received a two-year extension of their initial temporary immigration status – allowing them to legally live and work in the US.
Roughly 16,500 evacuees were admitted under Special Immigrant Visas or another immigration status.
But almost from the start of the programs, lawmakers had expressed concerns about the screening process for refugees.
“The Biden Administration’s security vetting procedures to clear Afghans entering the country remain unclear and incomplete, and, unless changed, are insufficient to preserve the safety of the American homeland,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) wrote in an October 2021 letter to former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and ex-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
Describing the vetting process as “hastily developed,” Ernst warned: “We cannot release a potential terrorist into the United States.”
President Trump described Lakanwal’s attack on the National Guard as an “act of terror” Wednesday night – and the suspected gunman is not the first Afghan national admitted to the US during Biden’s botched withdrawal to be accused of being a terrorist.
In October 2024, the Justice Department charged Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi with plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack.
Tawhedi, who entered the US on Sept. 9, 2021, and was living in Oklahoma City on a Special Immigrant Visa, allegedly took steps to stockpile AK-47 rifles and ammunition to carry out an attack on US soil “in the name of ISIS,” according to the DOJ. --->READ MORE HERE
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