When shots rang out near the White House on November 26, 2025, injuring two National Guard members from West Virginia, the incident quickly became a flashpoint in America’s ongoing debate over immigration and national security. The suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, had arrived in the United States just over four years earlier under Operation Allies Welcome—a Biden-era program designed to resettle vulnerable Afghans in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power. As officials scrambled to piece together the circumstances of the attack, the spotlight turned to the program that brought Lakanwal to American soil, igniting fierce political and public scrutiny.
According to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Lakanwal entered the U.S. on September 8, 2021, as part of Operation Allies Welcome. The program was launched in August 2021 by then-President Joe Biden, with the urgent aim of protecting Afghans who had aided U.S. forces or were otherwise at risk following the chaotic collapse of Kabul. Most arrivals, like Lakanwal, were granted temporary “parole” status for two years, allowing them to remain in the United States but without a clear path to permanent residency. Over 40% of those admitted were eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) due to their significant contributions to U.S. efforts in Afghanistan, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
In the year after its inception, Operation Allies Welcome was renamed “Enduring Welcome,” reflecting a shift to a long-term strategy focused on SIVs and the established U.S. refugee admissions program. By late 2025, the State Department estimated that more than 190,000 Afghans had resettled in the U.S. under both initiatives. However, the process left many in limbo—around 260,000 Afghans had applied to come to the U.S. and remained stuck in third countries like Pakistan, often facing continued threats from the Taliban. “Many of them are in Afghanistan and face persecution by the Taliban,” Shawn VanDiver, president of the AfghanEvac coalition, told CNN.
Lakanwal’s own journey was emblematic of the program’s complexities. Before his arrival, he had served in a special CIA-backed Afghan Army unit in Kandahar, according to officials cited by Axios. After resettling in the U.S., he lived in Washington state with his wife and five children, applying for asylum in December 2024 and receiving approval in April 2025. His background—once considered an asset to American security—would soon become a focal point for critics of the resettlement program.
The shooting immediately sparked a fierce political response. Former President Donald Trump, who returned to office in January 2025, was quick to seize on the incident as evidence of what he called the Biden administration’s “reckless” immigration policies. “Twenty million unknown and unvetted foreigners” had been allowed into the U.S., Trump claimed, calling for a comprehensive re-examination of every Afghan admitted during Biden’s presidency. “If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” he said, adding that the attack was “a crime against our entire nation.”
In the wake of the shooting, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced it would immediately halt the processing of all immigration requests related to Afghan nationals, pending a review of security and vetting protocols. The move left thousands of Afghan applicants in limbo and raised questions about the future of U.S. commitments to those who had aided American forces during two decades of war.
Concerns about the vetting process were not new. Two reports by the DHS Inspector General, released in 2022 and 2024, had already highlighted significant flaws in how Operation Allies Welcome was implemented. The 2022 audit found that DHS officers “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees.” Information such as names, dates of birth, and identification numbers was sometimes inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. As a result, at least two Afghan nationals who posed national security risks—including one who had been freed from prison by the Taliban—were paroled into the U.S., though their identities were not disclosed in the reports.
The 2024 review went further, revealing that data inaccuracies and system glitches made it difficult for immigration officials to track arrivals or monitor when parole periods were set to expire. “We found DHS does not have a process to monitor parole expiration for individual OAW parolees and has not designated a component to monitor their parole expiration,” the report stated. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), USCIS, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials “uniformly believed this was not their responsibility.”
Critics in Congress, especially among Republican lawmakers, had long pointed to these issues. House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer called for increased transparency into the vetting of Afghan nationals, citing the “chaos and disarray of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.” Some, like Sen. Josh Hawley, alleged that officials in Kabul were told to “err on the side of excess” by filling evacuation flights—potentially at the expense of thorough vetting.
Yet, defenders of Operation Allies Welcome and the broader Afghan resettlement effort argued that the overwhelming majority of arrivals had undergone some of the most rigorous security screenings of any immigrant population. “Afghan immigrants who resettle in the U.S. experience some of the most extensive security vetting of any population,” VanDiver said, urging the public not to demonize an entire community because of “the deranged choice this person made.” Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoed those sentiments, noting that Afghan newcomers “contribute to our economy, support their families, and enrich the cultural fabric of our society.”
Even as the Trump administration moved to “re-interview” Afghan migrants and cut off critical resources for thousands who had helped the U.S. during the war, advocates warned against a blanket backlash. “We’ve got so many people who are here, and one guy doing this does not mean that all Afghan families are troublemakers or terrorists,” VanDiver told CNN.
For now, the motive behind Lakanwal’s attack remains unclear, and the two injured National Guard members are recovering. But the fallout from the shooting has already reshaped the national conversation about America’s responsibilities—and vulnerabilities—when it comes to those it welcomes to its shores. As the debate rages on, the fate of tens of thousands of Afghan applicants and the legacy of Operation Allies Welcome hang in the balance.
