Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press, moderator Kristen Welker asked President Trump’s Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem about the vetting of Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who allegedly shot two National Guard members in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, killing one.
Lakanwal was granted asylum in April 2025 during the second Trump administration but when asked about the process by Welker (“What vetting did the Trump administration do before giving this suspect asylum?”), Noem blamed the Biden administration.
Noem said: “The vetting process, Kristen, happens when the person comes into the country and Joe Biden completely did not vet any of these individuals, and not this individual…that application for asylum was open under the Biden administration.”
Welker: What vetting did the Trump administration do before giving this suspect asylum?
Noem: That’s the Biden administration’s responsibility.
Welker: Asylum was approved in April of this year on the Trump administration’s watch. So just to be very clear, was there a vetting… pic.twitter.com/GRCO3ygIVm
— Acyn (@Acyn) November 30, 2025
When Welker pushed, “Are you saying he wasn’t vetted when he was granted asylum?”, Noem did not answer with a yes or no reply but instead repeated, “Vetting is happening when they come into the country and that was completely abandoned under the Biden administration.”
Note: The Biden administration facilitated Lakanwal’s initial entry to the U.S. during its 2021 Operation Allies Welcome program. Prior to his arrival in the U.S., Lakanwal worked with the CIA during the war in Afghanistan. He applied for asylum in 2024 and was reportedly granted asylum in April, under the Trump administration.
Noem’s deflection of responsibility on Meet the Press echoes the claims of FBI Director Kash Patel, who said at a press conference on Thursday that the Biden administration did “absolutely zero vetting” of refugees.
Note: In September, Patel told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “During my tenure, we are going through the databases to make sure that no known or suspected terrorists enter this country to harm our nation.”
CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s statement concerning the shooting also pointed to Biden administration actions, while confirming the alleged killer’s “work with the US government, including CIA.”
Ratcliffe told FOX News: “In the wake of the disastrous Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Biden administration justified bringing the alleged shooter to the United States in September 2021 due to his prior work with the US government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar, which ended shortly following the chaotic evacuation,” Ratcliffe said.
A 2021 story at CNN covered the vetting process for Afghans entering the U.S., describing the process as rigorous. Sunil Varghese, then policy director at the International Refugee Assistance Project, spoke about the special case of Afghans who helped the US in Afghanistan, telling reporters for the article that “the Afghans that we trust to work for the US go through so much vetting already as part of that job. We do a lot of vetting to make sure that our military, our ground troops’ eyes and ears can be trusted.”
The U.S. State Department reports over “190,000 Afghans have resettled in the US through the EW [Enduring Welcome] program and its predecessor, Operation Allies Welcome.”
The same report says: “The Department of State discontinued Afghan relocation activities from overseas platforms and, pursuant to E.O. 14163, suspended admissions under the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), except as required by court orders. The Department will shut down the program by end of FY 2025.”