The Trump administration issued a warning Friday after a senior intelligence official disclosed that the Afghan suspect accused in the fatal Washington, D.C., shooting had not been vetted before entering the United States.
Joe Kent, director of the National Counterterrorism Center, said Rahmanullah Lakanwal was “not vetted” prior to his 2021 entry into the country. Kent attributed the lapse to policies in place during the Biden administration.
According to Kent, more than 2 million people arrived in the U.S. from “Muslim-majority nations and regions” during that period, many with “minimal scrutiny amid record border crossings.” He said the total included approximately 85,000 Afghans who were “rapidly admitted” without the screening procedures used in previous years.
Kent explained that the suspected terrorist “was only vetted to serve as a soldier to fight against the Taliban, AQ, and ISIS in Afghanistan.” He said the approval for battlefield work “was not vetting for life in America.”
He noted that Lakanwal was never assessed for life in terms of being a neighbor, a resident, or a prospective citizen.
A senior U.S. official corroborated Kent’s account, describing the wartime vetting process used during the 2021 Afghanistan evacuation as “a low standard” that had not previously been relied upon for admission into the United States. The official noted that, prior to the Biden administration, applicants for Special Immigrant Visas typically waited 18 months or longer because they were required to undergo in-person interviews in a third country.
Current and former national security officials have also linked the lapse to the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal. According to reporting from the New York Post, former Trump-era officials at the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA said the chaotic evacuation created an opening that allowed Lakanwal to enter the U.S.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said the Biden team justified bringing him in “due to his prior work” with U.S. forces and his agency in Kandahar.
Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin added that Lakanwal entered as part of Biden’s parole program. She noted further that he came in with tens of thousands of other Afghans and that “this monster would not have been removed because of his parole.”
Lakanwal lived in Washington state after entering the country through Operation Allies Welcome, settling in Bellingham with his wife and five children. He later applied for asylum and was granted approval in April 2025.
According to investigators, Lakanwal ambushed two members of the National Guard on Thanksgiving Eve in Washington, D.C. Army National Guard Spc. Sarah Beckstrom was struck first and died the following day. Andrew Wolfe, a member of the Air National Guard remains in critical condition. Both were members of the West Virginia National Guard.
Officials said the suspect initially fired a revolver and then used Beckstrom’s rifle before being subdued by another Guardsman who intervened while he attempted to reload.
Security analysts have said the incident highlights broader concerns raised about the vetting process used during the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan. One veteran involved in the evacuation effort told reporters that “zero vetting” occurred for some of the tens of thousands of Afghans airlifted during the withdrawal, adding, “We have no idea who they are.”
U.S. Attorney General for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro identified the two National Guard members during a Thursday press conference, confirming at the time that both had undergone surgery and remained in critical condition. Pirro said Beckstrom and Wolfe had been sworn into service less than 24 hours before the shooting occurred, Newsweek reported.
“We are praying that they survive and that the highest charge will not have to be murder in the first degree, but make no mistake, if they do not, that will certainly be the charge – murder in the first degree,” she said at the time.
