Trump criticizes the program that brought Afghan refugees to the United States who fought the Taliban

The man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington is one of about 76,000 Afghans brought to the United States after the chaotic US withdrawal from their country as the Taliban took control, authorities said.

The program, called Operation Welcoming Allies, was created after the 2021 decision to leave Afghanistan after 20 years of US intervention and billions of dollars in aid.

Read more: What we know and don’t know about the shooting of two National Guard members in D.C

Democratic President Joe Biden, who oversaw the withdrawal begun by his predecessor — Republican President Donald Trump — said the United States owed the interpreters, translators, fighters, drivers and others who opposed the Taliban a safe place outside Afghanistan.

But others — including Trump and many Republicans — said the refugees were not properly vetted in a resettlement process that they said was as chaotic and poorly planned as the Taliban leaving the country.

“This person — and many others — should not have been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and soldiers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”

The accused shooter worked for the CIA before coming to the United States as a refugee

The accused shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Rahmanullah Lakkanwal, was working with the CIA “as a member of a partner force in Kandahar,” Ratcliffe said in a statement Thursday. It did not specify what Lakanwal did for the US spy agency.

The Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan was the Taliban’s stronghold in the country and saw heavy fighting between the Taliban and NATO forces after the 2001 US-led invasion following the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks. The CIA relied on Afghan staff to translate, administer, and fight on the front lines with its paramilitary officers in the war.

Little is known about the four years Lakanwal spent in the United States or why he was driving cross-country from his home in Bellingham, Washington, where a previous owner said he lived with his wife and five children.
Lakhanwal was granted asylum in April under the Trump administration, according to #AfghanEvac, a group of veterans and others working to get Afghans who helped the United States out of the country in exchange for their assistance.

Like all asylum seekers, he had to undergo fingerprinting, an iris scan, a full background check, an interview and a risk assessment, the organization said.

Operation Welcoming Allies brought tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States

Groups that help resettle Afghans said one man’s actions should not reflect poorly on the tens of thousands who have passed through various legal pathways to resettlement in the United States and others who have found themselves in limbo after Trump suspended nearly all resettlement programs for countries around the world when he took office in January.

“I don’t want people to exploit this tragedy as a political ploy,” said Sean Van Diver, president of #AfghanEvac.

After leaving Afghanistan, tens of thousands of resettlement seekers ended up in sprawling villages of air-conditioned tents on military bases such as Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in central New Jersey, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, or Fort Bliss in Texas.

After months of health screenings and background checks, many of them were resettled in established Afghan communities in northern Virginia and the surrounding Washington area, as well as northern California and Texas. States where between 1,000 and 3,000 people have settled include Arizona, New York, Florida, Georgia, Colorado, Nebraska and Pennsylvania, according to State Department data.

Trump halts resettlement aid after taking office

Trump’s executive order issued shortly after taking office in January suspending federal funding for resettlement agencies has made it harder to help refugees get basic necessities like food and rent, often restricting religious groups that help them.

The president, who has described Afghanistan as “hell on earth,” had already planned to review every Afghan who entered the country under “Operation Welcoming Allies,” and reiterated that goal after Wednesday’s shooting.

“If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them,” Trump said in a message posted on social media, adding that the shooting was “a crime against our entire nation.”

The Trump administration wants to close the door on most refugees

Trump also used his message to attack refugees from Somalia who have settled in Minnesota, saying they are “tearing apart this once great state.”

It is part of this administration’s goal to deport people in the country illegally and close the country to most refugees. Trump said he wants to remove anyone who “doesn’t belong here or doesn’t add benefit to our country.”

One of the Afghans who arrived in the United States is Muhammad Saboor, a father of seven who worked as an electrician and air conditioning technician with international and American forces for 17 years. He settled in California earlier this year, telling the Associated Press that he looked forward to sending his children to school and giving back to the country that took his family in.

“I think we can now live in a 100% peaceful environment,” Sabour said.

Associated Press journalists Eric Tucker and Martha Belisle contributed.