The taking pictures of two Nationwide Guard troopers in Washington, D.C., final week has sparked a nationwide debate about U.S. immigration coverage and whether or not the federal authorities missed any purple flags in regards to the alleged attacker, recognized by authorities as 29-year-old Afghan nationwide Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
The Trump administration has cited the assault, which killed one of many troopers, to additional broaden its government-wide immigration crackdown. The administration has halted all visa and immigration processing for Afghan nationals, ordered a evaluation of inexperienced card instances for immigrants from 19 nations and frozen all asylum case selections.
Lakanwal’s precise motives stay unclear. Over the weekend, Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem prompt he may have “radicalized” after coming to the U.S. Emails obtained by CBS Information additionally point out that Lakanwal’s psychological well being deteriorated lately, and that he grew to become remoted and indifferent from his household.
Trump administration officers have blamed the Biden administration for permitting Lakanwal to enter the U.S. in 2021, whereas critics of President Trump have faulted his authorities for approving his asylum case earlier this 12 months. However a evaluation of Lakanwal’s immigration case, based mostly on conversations with U.S. officers and different official sources, exhibits there have been a number of alternatives for federal authorities, beneath each administrations, to vet Lakanwal and determine any probably regarding data.
That is what we all know in regards to the immigration course of Lakanwal underwent to enter the U.S. and to attempt to stay right here completely.
September 2021: Lakanwal arrives within the U.S.
Lakanwal entered the U.S. in September 2021 as a part of “Operation Allies Welcome,” the Biden administration’s effort to resettle tens of hundreds of Afghan evacuees airlifted from Kabul following the chaotic American army withdrawal and Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
U.S. officers conversant in his case advised CBS Information that Lakanwal was granted humanitarian parole. Authorities statistics present parole was supplied to greater than 77,000 evacuees so they may stay and work within the nation legally for two-year increments. Parole was designed to be a stopgap measure whereas the evacuees utilized for everlasting types of authorized standing, similar to asylum or Particular Immigrant Visas for many who assisted the American conflict effort.
All Afghan evacuees have been imagined to bear an preliminary spherical of vetting at army bases in Italy, Germany, Qatar, Spain and the United Arab Emirates earlier than being allowed to enter the U.S. Those that raised safety issues have been despatched to Kosovo. After arriving within the U.S., many evacuees have been housed in American army bases in a number of states earlier than settling in communities all through the nation.
On the time, Republican lawmakers in Congress raised issues in regards to the vetting course of undertaken by the Biden administration in the course of the Afghan resettlement effort. A 2022 report by the Division of Homeland Safety Workplace of Inspector Common mentioned the screening course of encountered a number of obstacles and that some federal officers “didn’t all the time have important knowledge” to correctly vet the evacuees.
December 2024: Lakanwal requests asylum
Lakanwal utilized for asylum with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies in December 2024, arguing he would face persecution if returned to Afghanistan, in line with U.S. officers who requested anonymity to debate inside authorities data.
His utility would have been one other alternative for the U.S. authorities to vet his case. USCIS usually requires asylum candidates to point out as much as in-person interviews at one among its workplaces throughout the nation.
A DHS official advised CBS Information the USCIS asylum vetting course of usually entails the gathering of biometrics, a evaluation of social media exercise, FBI background checks and different screenings. The method additionally consists of an inquiry into whether or not the applicant can show she or he would face persecution if deported due to one among 5 components: their race, nationality, faith, political opinion or membership in a “explicit social group.”
In recent times, USCIS has been prioritizing Afghan asylum claims, processing them sooner than the instances of different nationalities on account of a Biden-era federal courtroom settlement. The overwhelming majority of Afghan asylum instances are authorised. Authorities knowledge exhibits 20,354 — 96% — of 21,201 Afghan asylum requests determined by USCIS because the summer time of 2021 have been granted. Solely 120 instances have been denied throughout that point.
Two U.S. officers and an ex-Afghan army official advised CBS Information that Lakanwal was a part of a “Zero Unit,” one among quite a lot of CIA-backed forces within the former Afghan authorities’s army and intelligence equipment that gained infamy for his or her secrecy and alleged brutality. That work may have made him a goal for reprisals by the Taliban.
April 2025: Lakanwal is granted asylum
USCIS authorised Lakanwal’s asylum utility in April 2025, granting him — and any by-product fast relations — asylee standing, U.S. officers advised CBS Information.
Whereas a grant of asylum is a willpower that the applicant meets the authorized definition of a refugee, it doesn’t instantly bestow everlasting authorized standing to the beneficiary. Asylees need to submit one other utility to request a inexperienced card, or lawful everlasting resident standing, which they will obtain no ahead of one 12 months after the grant of asylum. Two U.S. officers advised CBS Information that Lakanwal filed that utility, often called an adjustment of standing request, and that it was pending on the time of the assault.
U.S. legislation permits the federal government to terminate somebody’s asylum standing in sure circumstances, together with when asylees commit severe crimes or fraud. A DHS official advised CBS Information that course of requires USCIS to inform the asylee of the intent to terminate the standing.
These whose asylum standing is revoked are positioned in deportation proceedings earlier than federal immigration judges, who’re overseen by the Justice Division. In Lakanwal’s case, that course of would doubtless not be finalized till after the adjudication of the prison costs he faces due to final week’s taking pictures.
