The Afghan national charged with killing two D.C. National Guard members near the White House last week was admitted to the United States after undergoing only the most cursory security checks during the Biden administration’s 2021 Kabul airlift, a senior Department of Homeland Security official acknowledged Tuesday.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, evacuated amid the frantic final hours of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, was waved through a screening system that departed sharply from the country’s established vetting architecture. Tricia McLaughlin, DHS assistant secretary for public affairs, said the 31-year-old was effectively admitted with none of the safeguards typically attached to refugee admissions, according to The Washington Examiner.
“He was barely vetted. There was no biometric vetting. There was no criminal background check, cyber background check, financial background check,” McLaughlin told Fox News, an unusually blunt assessment that is already fueling the latest round of congressional scrutiny over Operation Allies Welcome.
The revelations land at a moment of national shock following the Nov. 26 shooting, in which prosecutors say Lakanwal opened fire on Guard personnel assigned to protect the White House perimeter. He pleaded not guilty Tuesday to first-degree murder, even as federal authorities continue to probe his motive.
The administration’s handling of the August 2021 evacuation—one of the largest in modern U.S. history—has long faced criticism for privileging speed over security. More than 80,000 Afghans were airlifted out of Kabul as the Taliban captured the city, and officials now concede that the improvised vetting regime crafted for the effort “departed significantly” from normal practice.
Under standard procedures, refugees and other foreign nationals seeking entry to the United States undergo multiple layers of identity verification, cross-agency background checks, in-person interviews, and biometric collection—protocols fortified after the September 11 attacks to prevent precisely the kind of unknown-risk admissions critics now highlight. Yet during the evacuation, those steps were narrowed, accelerated, or skipped outright for thousands.
Lakanwal’s path through the system did not end with his initial entry. He later applied for—and obtained—asylum in April, though DHS declined to discuss what supplementary reviews, if any, were conducted before approval.
The case has revived longstanding warnings from congressional staff and former administration officials who said as early as late 2021 that top policymakers pushed to relax vetting standards under direction from the White House and the National Security Council. Their accounts, largely dismissed at the time as partisan or speculative, now carry fresh weight as investigators reconstruct how a man admitted during the emergency evacuation ultimately stood accused of killing two American service members on duty in the nation’s capital.
Lawmakers from both parties are demanding a fuller accounting of the decision-making behind the expedited screening process.
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