Jim Banks demands Biden's Afghan refugees be located, vetted 'immediately' after DC National Guardsmen shooting

In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting in Washington, DC that saw two National Guard members injured and a suspect, identified as Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, Senator Jim Banks has renewed calls for Afghan refugees let into the United States under the Biden administration to be immediately vetted. 

"Joe Biden rushed tens of thousands of Afghans into our nation. Today, we faced horrible consequences for this. I call on Secretary Kristi Noem to immediately locate and vet all of the Afghans let in by Joe Biden as part of 'Operation Allies Welcome,’" Banks wrote on Wednesday night. 

Amid the 2021 disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Department of Homeland Security under Biden promised to "swiftly and safely" resettle Afghan allies who were trying to flee the Taliban’s takeover. Over 120,000 people had been airlifted from Afghanistan in a span of weeks. Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said at the time that the US government was vetting evacuees and had denied entry to individuals for “derogatory” information found during security screenings.

Lakanwal, 29, arrived in the US in September 2021 under humanitarian parole through Operation Allies Welcome, the program used to relocate Afghans from Afghanistan. Lakanwal had reportedly established a working relationship with various American agencies, including the CIA, while serving in a "partner force" in Afghanistan. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said that Lakanwal’s admission into the country has highlighted serious failures in the administration’s vetting process. “The individual and so many others should have never been allowed to come here,” Ratcliffe said. “Our citizens and service members deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden administration’s catastrophic failures.”

Banks noted that he had raised concerns in 2021 "about Biden’s reckless flood of unvetted Afghan nationals into our country. Today, one of them shot 2 National Guardsmen in our nation’s capital. This is what happens when you have open borders with terrorists."

Banks had written in September 2021, "The Biden administration wants billions of dollars to fund unlimited green cards for unvetted Afghans. Opening our borders to a Taliban-run nation with the promise of lifetime welfare and citizenship for their extended family is reckless and dangerous!"

He similarly expressed outrage nearly a year later, writing, "The Biden admin failed to vet Afghan evacuees, flew 324 suspected terrorists into the US and is now trying to give all unvetted evacuees a pathway to citizenship. Joe Biden is a disaster!"

The Trump administration recently ordered a review of all refugees who entered the country under the Biden administration. This would apply to around 233,000 refugees who arrived between January 20, 2021 and February 20, 2025. The order also called for the processing of applications for permanent residence by refugees who entered the country during that time period to be halted.