The State Department on Wednesday moved to freeze all immigration cases from Afghanistan after a 29-year-old Afghan national deliberately targeted and shot two National Guard soldiers in downtown Washington D.C., leaving them fighting for their lives.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced late Wednesday night that it had halted processing for Afghan nationals indefinitely. Thousands of Afghan nationals have been attempting to enter the United States on immigration visas on claims that they aided coalition forces during the Afghanistan conflict or were at risk of harm from the nation’s Taliban government.
The FBI is currently investigating the attack as an act of terror, while President Donald Trump immediately ordered a formal review of all Afghan nationals who entered the country following the disastrous August 2021 withdrawal under the Biden Administration. Officials have confirmed that the attacker entered the country through Biden’s “Operation Allies Welcome” initiative, which has long faced criticism for lack of vetting.
Shawn VanDiver, president of AfghanEvac, a volunteer group seeking to assist Afghans who helped U.S. forces, told Newsmax that about 200,000 Afghans had arrived in the United States since 2021 through refugee and special visa programs. The group has long claimed that all applicants have been properly vetted, despite the lack of accurate record-keeping throughout much of the country.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed Thursday morning that Lakanwal worked with several U.S. government entities, including the CIA, while serving with Afghan security forces in Kandahar.
“In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the U.S. government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” the director told Fox News.
“The individual—and so many others—should have never been allowed to come here,” Ratcliffe continued. “Our citizens and service members deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro identified the wounded soldiers as Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and Andrew Wolfe, 24, during a news conference on Thursday morning. Both victims are out of surgery, but both remain in critical condition after they were shot in the head with a powerful handgun.
Pirro further revealed that both guardsmen had been sworn in just hours before and had volunteered to work over the Thanksgiving holiday.
“It was a crime against humanity. The hearts of all Americans tonight are with those two members of the West Virginia National Guard and their families. The love of our entire country is pouring out for them, and we are lifting them up in our prayers. As we are filled with anguish and grief for those who were shot, we’re also filled with righteous anger and ferocious resolve,” President Trump said in a five-minute address on Wednesday night.
