National Guard Shooting Raises Concerns About Afghan Evacuee Vetting Process

The fatal shooting of two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington has reignited scrutiny over the Biden administration’s handling of the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and subsequent refugee vetting procedures. The tragedy has claimed the life of West Virginia National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom of Nicholas County.

Authorities have identified Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously served with a CIA-linked team fighting the Taliban, as the main suspect in the shooting. This development has prompted former President Donald Trump to call for reexamination of green card holders from “countries of concern,” including Afghanistan.

The incident has brought renewed attention to warnings from critics who questioned the thoroughness of security protocols during the chaotic evacuation from Kabul. Fox News host Laura Ingraham, who exclusively reported on congressional concerns about the vetting process in September 2021, told Fox News Digital on Friday that she and other conservatives have long raised alarms about potential security failures.

“Soon after the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal, it was obvious that their intent was to bring as many Afghans into the U.S. as possible,” Ingraham stated. “Conservatives, including myself, raised serious concerns about the cost, the difficulty of assimilation and potential threats posed to no avail. The Biden team didn’t care.”

Ingraham pointed to then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s admission that officials tried to “get as many people out as fast as we can, while we had the airport functioning. We focused on doing just that, and we’re doing accountings on the back end as people arrive in the United States.”

In September 2021, then-Representative Mark Green of Tennessee, who later became chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, provided Ingraham with a letter he had sent to Blinken detailing alarming reports from Fort Pickett, Virginia. Green wrote that Afghan evacuees reportedly had “free rein of the complex and have even been allowed to leave, despite not having completed the vetting process.”

The letter described “shocking allegations, including multiple incidents of sexual assault and several evacuees have been picked up by Uber drivers without any permission from authorities or being cleared to leave.” Green, who served as an Army special operations flight surgeon in Afghanistan, characterized these reports as an obvious national security risk.

Similar concerns emerged from other military installations. Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin reported comparable issues at Fort McCoy in his home state, claiming that none of the evacuees had completed the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) process when he visited the base as the first 2,000 refugees arrived.

“People could walk right off from the base without any authorization from the commanding officer,” Tiffany said in September 2022. “We sounded the warning bell on that. And now, finally, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security is talking about this and saying this is a threat to national security and to our local communities.”

The evacuation operation faced additional complications as many evacuees reportedly arrived without personal documentation, raising questions about how effective any vetting could be. When pressed on these concerns at the time, then-Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CBS News that the administration was dealing with “very few” evacuees who had given “any cause for concern.”

When asked whether he could guarantee that none of the thousands of prisoners released by the Taliban would enter America, Mayorkas responded, “I can guarantee you that we are doing everything possible to make sure that they don’t.”

The National Guard shooting has intensified debates about immigration policy and national security as the country approaches a presidential transition. Ingraham emphasized that Afghan evacuees not only “come from a culture hostile to Western values, but they are often all too dependent on the U.S. taxpayers to support them and their families.”

“This must end — it’s yet another calamitous Biden mistake President Trump is forced to address,” she added.

The Department of Homeland Security has not yet responded to requests for comment on the current vetting procedures or any planned changes following the shooting incident.