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Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national identified this week in the ambush on two National Guard members near the White House, came to the United States under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program in 2021. Authorities say the 29-year-old was apprehended after an exchange of gunfire and later hospitalized with non-life-threatening wounds. This is not just another isolated crime story — it directly exposes the consequences of mass parole policies rushed through with little oversight.
The attack was a brazen, targeted shooting that left two young guards critically injured while on duty protecting the capital, and witnesses described a chaotic scene as hearts across the city stopped. Reports show the suspect traveled from the Pacific Northwest to carry out the ambush, indicating planning and intent rather than a random act. Americans should be furious that the brave men and women sworn to protect us were made targets because of failed immigration and resettlement policies.
Federal officials confirm Lakanwal was paroled into the U.S. in September 2021 and later applied for — and was granted — asylum in 2025, after years living here. He reportedly had worked alongside U.S.-backed units in Afghanistan, including forces with CIA connections, a fact that makes the vetting failures even more troubling. If someone with that background can slip through chaotic record-keeping and be on our streets, the American people deserve answers and accountability now.
Even before this shooting, the Operation Allies Welcome program had drawn sharp criticism for mismanagement, missing records, and a lack of clear responsibility between agencies tasked with tracking parolees. A recent report and multiple news investigations documented how names were misspelled, biographic details were inconsistent, and no agency was properly monitoring expired parole periods. This is the predictable result when ideology and political optics trump common-sense security protocols.
The federal response has been swift but reactive: the President ordered additional National Guard troops to Washington and Homeland Security paused Afghan immigration processing while investigations proceed. Those steps are necessary damage control, but they don’t answer why mass parole into the country was ever prioritized over thorough vetting. We cannot treat the security of our capital and the safety of our servicemembers as an afterthought to political narratives.
Hundreds of thousands of Afghan evacuees were admitted under the post-2021 rush, and while many genuinely aided our troops and deserved refuge, the scale and speed of admissions created vulnerabilities that bad actors could exploit. Conservatives have warned for years that open-door policies and watered-down vetting invite tragedy; this incident is a painful validation of that argument. It’s time to restore rigorous background checks, exacting interagency record-keeping, and strict parole accountability so Americans can feel safe in their own capital.
We should also spare a moment for the two wounded guardsmen and their families — they deserve our prayers, our support, and swift justice for their attacker. Law enforcement must pursue every lead, and our leaders must stop pretending this is simply a law-and-order problem divorced from policy decisions made in Washington. When Americans put their lives on the line to defend this nation, they should not be ambushed because of preventable policy failures.
This moment must be a reckoning: Congress and the administration should immediately launch a full, transparent review of Operation Allies Welcome admissions, asylum approvals, and interagency tracking, with real reforms and consequences for those who failed in their duties. We can be compassionate and still insist on secure borders and responsible admissions — in fact, that balance is the only moral course that protects both Americans and genuine refugees. The safety of our citizens and the honor of our troops demand nothing less.
