How were Afghan evacuees vetted under Biden?

The shooting of two National Guard members, one of whom later died, in Washington, D.C., led to major changes in immigration policy by the Trump administration.

The Department of Homeland Security said the suspect — from Afghanistan — entered the United States under the Afghan Resettlement Plan launched during the Biden administration.

Republican officials claimed, without providing evidence, that he had not been vetted.

The Department of Homeland Security suspended the processing of all immigration applications related to Afghan citizens “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”

The suspect, Rahmanullah Lakkanwal, 29, entered the United States under the Afghan repatriation plan, Operation Allied Welcoming (OAW), DHS said.

The scheme was launched in August 2021 under the Biden administration to resettle “vulnerable” Afghans after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in the same year.

“They came in, they weren’t vetted, they weren’t vetted,” said President Trump, who called a reporter “stupid” for asking why the Biden administration was blaming the Washington attack.

At an FBI news conference, agency director Kash Patel claimed that the previous administration “made the decision to allow thousands of people to enter this country without any screening or background checks.”

And in Press release on the day of the attackThe Department of Homeland Security said the suspect “is one of thousands of unscreened Afghan citizens allowed to enter the country under the Biden administration’s Operation Welcoming Allies program.”

On X this week, Vice President JD Vance referenced comments he made in 2021 “Criticize Biden’s policy of opening the door to unscreened Afghan refugees.”

He made similar statements about the screening failure In an interview with CBS earlier this year. Vance highlighted the case of an Afghan national who was also evacuated to the United States after the Taliban seized power. Who was later charged with terrorism-related crimes.

Lakanwal entered the United States via OAW on September 8, 2021, shortly after the fall of Kabul.

Many Afghans faced a serious risk of persecution at the hands of the Taliban, especially those who worked with Western governments.

More than 190,000 Afghans have been resettled under the OAW and another program called “Always Welcome.” According to a report published by the US State Department this year.

Most Afghan citizens who arrived under the OAW program were given permission to remain in the country for two years under a process known as “parole.”

Afghan parolees are subject to reporting requirements (such as critical medical examinations and vaccinations) and could lose their right to remain in the United States if these requirements are not met.

Those who took “significant risks” to support US forces in Afghanistan have been accepted as lawful permanent residents after completing the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process.

According to the charity Afghan Evac, Lakanwal had an active application for a special immigrant visa, but was granted asylum this year under the current Trump administration.

We’ve reached out to the White House for more details on Lakanwal’s examination. He did not present it to them, but he told us:

He added: “This animal would not be here if it were not for Joe Biden’s dangerous policies that allowed countless unchecked criminals to invade our country and harm the American people.”

“The Trump administration is taking every action possible — in the face of relentless Democratic opposition — to get these monsters out of our country and clean up the mess created by the Biden administration.”

We also contacted the Department of Homeland Security and the CIA, but they did not respond.

Although we do not know the suspect’s vetting arrangements before he entered the United States, we do know how the vetting scheme in which he arrived was supposed to work.

Archived government website for the OAW schemewhich was last updated at the beginning of this year, refers to a “rigorous” and “multi-layered” screening process, which included collecting biometric information such as fingerprints and photos from Afghans before allowing them to enter the country.

It names several government agencies involved in the audit, including the FBI and the National Counterterrorism Center.

In 2021, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said The government has “established a robust inspection and audit structure” under the scheme.

There have been conflicting reports about the effectiveness of the screening program.

2022 review conducted by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) A US government oversight body found that “some of the information used to screen evacuees through US government databases (such as name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data) was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing.”

The Inspector General’s Office said this problem was due in part to DHS not having a list of Afghan evacuees “who lack adequate identification documents.”

It also stated that US Customs and Border Protection “allowed the entry or conditional release of evacuees who were not fully screened in the United States.”

Two years later Another OIG audit of the scheme Weaknesses were found in the government’s ability to identify potentially negative information (such as national security concerns) about some Afghan parolees.

However, earlier this year The Office of Inspector General commended the FBI For its role in examining the Afghans on the plot.

She added, “In general, we found that each of the responsible elements of the FBI communicated effectively and addressed any potential national security risks that were identified.”

In addition to reviewing the OAW audits, BBC Verify contacted several experts to get their views on the audit process.

Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration analyst at the Cato Research Institute, said the program “was more inconsistent than usual by OIG’s calculations and compared to the more intensive refugee review process.”

“Due to the chaotic nature of the evacuation, information was lost and some inspections were not conducted until after the migrants had already exited Afghanistan.”

Jenny Murray, president and CEO of immigration advocacy group the National Immigration Forum, told BBC Verified that she was present at the US military bases where evacuees were initially processed.

“Evacuees were processed at military bases and held for several weeks, even months, until they were ready to enter the United States. That’s when security screening and medical screening were processed extensively,” she said.

“Even the best audits cannot predict the future [Lakanwal] “He could have had a clean record, been a suitable candidate for humanitarian protection, and then something changed.”

Murray said that in the four years since the evacuation, thousands of Afghans have been safely resettled in the United States, and this is the first major incident.

“The fact that one person committed a horrific act does not mean that other Afghans are now a threat,” she added.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe told CBS News, the BBC’s partner in the US, that the suspect had been working with the CIA in Afghanistan.

The BBC’s Afghan Service spoke to a soldier from the former military unit in Lakanwal, Kandahar Strike Force.

The soldier said there was a screening to enter the unit, which took about three to four weeks, and included a recommendation by a senior KSF officer and a “call log check” of their mobile device.

If the candidate passes this stage, he or she may be referred for a security check conducted by the United States, which includes the collection of biometric data from the applicant.

The Afghan service confirmed the soldier’s account by speaking to a commander from a Kosovo Security Force unit, who also confirmed the soldier’s identity and added that a criminal record check was also part of the screening process.