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Noem says the Biden admin failed to vet Afghans living in U.S. as 200,000 see legal status thrown into question by Trump
John Bowdenin Washington, D.C.Sunday 30 November 2025 20:46 GMTComments
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DHS Secretary Kristi Noem blamed the Biden administration on Sunday as the nation reacted to the horrific shooting of two National Guard troops deployed to the streets of Washington D.C. one week ago.
The shooting last weekend rocked the nation’s capital as one remains in the hospital in critical condition after the attack; the other, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, died after being hospitalized.
Police identified 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who worked with the CIA in Afghanistan against the Taliban and other forces, as the suspect. Lakanwal was taken into custody after the attack.
During an appearance this Sunday on ABC’s This Week, Noem echoed her boss’s criticism of the Biden administration’s vetting procedures for Afghans who aided U.S. forces and feared retribution after the fall of Kabul in 2021.
open image in galleryDHS secretary Kristi Noem claimed that the suspected shooter of two National Guardsmen in Washington D.C. was not vetted by the Biden administration before his refugee application was approved (ABC - This Week)Noem also said that the Department of Homeland Security thought it was possible that Lakanwal was radicalized by a violent ideology inside the United States, though she provided no evidence to back up that assertion.
"He was brought into the country by the Biden administration through Operation Allies Welcome. And then, maybe vetted after that, but not done well, based on what the guidelines were put forward by President Biden," Noem said on ABC News. "Since he's been here, we believe he could have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state."
In the wake of last weekend’s shooting Trump ordered Noem’s agency to immediately cease refugee and asylum applications for Afghan nationals.
Noem separately appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, where she repeated the same claim.
“I will say we believe he was radicalized since he's been here in this country,” Noem said on NBC. “We do believe it was through connections in his home community and state, and we're going to continue to talk to those who interacted with him, who were his family members, who talk to them.”
The secretary added that investigators “have had some participation” from Lakanwal’s family members in that regard.
open image in galleryThe Trump administration has halted all decisions regarding migrants seeking asylum in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members, allegedly by an Afghan national who was granted asylum earlier this year (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)NBC’s Kristen Welker sparred with Noem on when vetting of Lakanwal should have taken place. The secretary argued that DHS under her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, should have handled investigations into Lakanwal’s beliefs and background upon accepting him into the U.S. in 2021. Welker questioned repeatedly why the Trump administration hadn’t completed the same vetting earlier in 2025, when his asylum application (submitted a year earlier) was accepted by DHS.
“The vetting process, Kristen, happens when the person comes into the country,” Noem argued. “And Joe Biden completely did not vet any of these individuals, did not vet this individual.”
“This is the consequences of the dangerous situation he put our country in when [Joe Biden] allowed those people to infiltrate our country during that abandonment of Afghanistan,” she went on.
open image in galleryKristi Noem blamed DHS under her predecessor, Alejandro Mayorkas, for supposedly insufficient vetting of Afghan nationals who came to the U.S. as part of Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Enduring Welcome after the fall of Kabul (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)There was significant pressure on the administration at that time to ensure the protection of Afghans who aided the U.S. during the occupation and efforts to forestall the fall of the country’s democratic government. Between two efforts directed by the Biden administration at DHS, Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Enduring Welcome, tens of thousands of Afghans were resettled in the United States. According to DHS statistics, roughly 200,000 were settled over the course of four years.
Donald Trump has threatened to upend legal status for every one of them in response to the tragic shootings in D.C.
“I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country,” Trump wrote in a Thanksgiving Day post to Truth Social.
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