The Biden administration failed to vet Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national accused of shooting National Guard members in Washington, before admitting him into the country in 2021, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin revealed on Tuesday afternoon that the U.S. government “barely” screened Lakanwal before he was brought to the United States with more than 80,000 primarily Afghan nationals amid the August 2021 airlift out of Kabul, Afghanistan.
“He was barely vetted. There was no biometric vetting. There was no criminal background check, cyber background check, financial background check,” McLaughlin, the DHS assistant secretary, told Fox News America Reports cohost John Roberts.
The Nov. 26 attack in Washington, just blocks from the White House, has spurred new questions about the extent to which 82,000 evacuees from Afghanistan were screened and vetted before being brought into the U.S. four years ago, as well as whether U.S. immigration protocols at present are adequate given that Lakanwal obtained asylum in the U.S. in April.
The Washington Examiner was the first to report in late 2021 that senior officials from the State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice Departments had briefed select Senate members and aides about the airlift and disclosed that the Biden administration had chosen to water down vetting procedures in that situation.
McLaughlin’s statement on Tuesday sheds new light on how significantly the previous administration walked back standard vetting protocols.
Foreigners admitted to the U.S., such as refugees, are to be screened and vetted before being admitted to the U.S. through an extensive process that includes multiple interrogations.
“They created a brand new, out-of-cloth screening process just for this population. And then they told everyone, ‘This is what you follow,’” a Senate aide told the Washington Examiner in 2021. “DOD was such a heavy part of this, and they follow orders. And so, they’re like, ‘OK, here’s the checklist. I’ll do exactly what the checklist says — no more.’ So, that’s how it happened, but it was centrally managed via DHS, the National Security Council, the White House. They said, ‘This is how we’re going to do this. And we’re going to depart significantly from the standard way of doing screening and vetting as we would in literally any other situation.’”
The term “screening” refers to law enforcement determining a person’s identity through oral statements, government documents, and biometrics, which can include one’s fingerprints and facial scans. Screening also refers to the initial information that law enforcement officers find when plugging a person’s name into a criminal database.
Screening is the initial stage in reviewing a refugee or immigrant’s background. The three people interviewed said that Afghan records were not comprehensive, which made screening efforts difficult. The next step is vetting, a critical part of the process that was overlooked over and over again, sources said. Vetting refers to the in-person interview by a federal official who determines whether the evacuee is who they claim to be and whether the person poses a national security risk to the U.S.
AN AFGHAN NATIONAL WAS CHARGED IN THE DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING. HERE’S WHERE THINGS STAND
Vetting refugees and immigrants became an admission requirement after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, but it was dropped in the case of the Afghan refugees, the memo and three officials stated.
McLaughlin did not comment on the extent to which Lakanwal was vetted prior to his being approved as an asylum recipient in April. Lakanwal pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder on Tuesday.
