Last week, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal of Afghanistan allegedly opened fire on 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe — both of the West Virginia National Guard, and who were sworn in just 24 hours before the shooting.
Beckstrom has since died from her injuries, while Wolfe remains fighting for his life in the hospital.
Lakanwal was resettled in the United States as part of former President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program, where tens of thousands of Afghan nationals were brought to American communities — many thousands of whom were not screened or interviewed in person
In August 2023, two years after Biden’s mass Afghan resettlement began, the State Department IG issued a report detailing alarming issues with the federal government’s SIV program for Afghan nationals, which was routinely funded by Democrats and Republicans.
Among the findings, the IG report revealed that the SIV program to bring Afghans to the U.S. relied on cooperation from the Taliban.
“First, the Department relies on Taliban cooperation for SIV applicant relocation from the country because of a lack of embassy ground presence in Afghanistan,” the IG report states:
The reliance on Taliban cooperation because of the lack of U.S. diplomatic ground presence in Afghanistan impacts the ability for Afghan SIV applicants to exit Afghanistan and arrive at a U.S. diplomatic post for visa processing. Department officials told OIG that one of the biggest challenges to SIV applicants departing Afghanistan is the lack of freedom of movement out of Afghanistan, which is dependent on Taliban cooperation. Freedom of movement refers to Afghans’ right to leave Afghanistan and move across its borders. Department Officials told OIG that the Taliban’s willingness to approve flights, to allow women to depart Afghanistan alone, to determine the number of aircraft Kabul International Airport can accommodate, and other factors impacted freedom of movement for Afghans. Since the evacuation in August 2021, the Department has encouraged the Taliban, through the Special Representative for Afghanistan, to support the freedom of movement of Afghans, specifically Afghan SIV applicants. [Emphasis added]
The report came about a year after Biden, in June 2022, allowed Afghans “who provided insignificant or certain limited material support to a designated terrorist organization” to “qualify for protection and other immigration benefits in the United States,” Department of Homeland Security officials said at the time.
Since the attack on the National Guardsmen, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that the agency would halt all visa issuances to Afghans seeking U.S. entry to protect national security.
Likewise, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joe Edlow announced that the agency is stopping asylum decisions “until we can ensure that every alien is vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible.”
“The safety of the American people always comes first,” Edlow said in a statement.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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