The man accused of shooting two National Guard members in Washington is one of about 76,000 Afghans brought to the United States following the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from their country after the Taliban took power, authorities said.
The program, called Operation Allies Welcome, was created following the 2021 decision to leave Afghanistan after 20 years of American intervention and billions of dollars in aid.
Democratic President Joe Biden, who oversaw the troop withdrawal initiated by his predecessor, Republican President Donald Trump, said the United States has an obligation to provide translators, fighters, drivers and others who opposed the Taliban with a safe place outside Afghanistan.
But others, including Trump and many Republicans, said refugees were not properly vetted in the resettlement process, which they said was as chaotic and poorly planned as handing the country over to the Taliban.
“This man, like so many others, should never have been allowed to come here. Our citizens and service members deserve much better than to endure the ongoing consequences of the Biden administration's disastrous failures,” said CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
Accused shooter worked for the CIA before coming to the US as a refugee
The accused shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Rahmanullah Lakanwala, was working with the CIA “as a member of a partner team in Kandahar,” Ratcliffe said in a statement Thursday. It does not specify what Lacanwal did for the US spy agency.
The Kandahar region in southern Afghanistan was in the Taliban heartland of the country and witnessed intense 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 personnel for translation, administrative, and front-line combat duties with its own paramilitary officers during the war.
Little is known about Lakanwal's four years in the United States or why he moved across the country from his home in Bellingham, Washington, where a former homeowner said he lived with his wife and five children.
Operation Welcome Allies brought tens of thousands of Afghans to the United States
Groups that help resettle Afghans said one man's actions should not reflect negatively on the tens of thousands of people who have gone through various legal pathways to resettle in the U.S. and others who have been left 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 use this tragedy as a political ploy,” said Sean VanDiver, president of #AfghanEvac.
After leaving Afghanistan, tens of thousands of those seeking resettlement found themselves in sprawling, air-conditioned tent cities at 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 medical screening and background checks, many were resettled in existing Afghan communities in northern Virginia and the 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 the State Department.
Trump cut off resettlement assistance after taking office
Trump's executive order shortly after taking office in January that suspended federal funding for resettlement agencies has made it more difficult to help refugees with basic necessities such as food and rent, handcuffing the largely religious groups that help them.
The president, who has called Afghanistan a “hellhole on earth,” had already planned to test every Afghan who entered the country as part of Operation Welcome Allies and reaffirmed that goal after Wednesday's shooting.
“If they can't love our country, we don't need them,” Trump said in a message posted on social media, adding that the shooting was a “crime against our entire nation.”
Trump administration wants to close doors to most refugees
Trump also used his message to attack Somali refugees who have settled in Minnesota, saying they are “tearing apart this once great nation.”
Part of the current administration's goals is to both illegally deport people from the country and to close the country to most refugees. Trump said he wants to remove anyone “who doesn't belong here or doesn't benefit our country.”
One of the Afghans who made it to the United States was Mohammad Saboor, a father of seven who worked for 17 years as an electrician and air-conditioning technician for international and U.S. forces. He moved to California earlier this year and told The Associated Press he was looking forward to sending his children to school and giving back to the country that adopted his family.
“I believe that we can now live in a 100% peaceful environment,” Sabur said.
