The Trump administration said on Thursday that it was reviewing all asylum cases that had been approved under the Biden administration, signaling a broad crackdown in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
Officials said that a 29-year-old Afghan man had shot the Guard members and that he had entered the United States through a Biden-era program that brought tens of thousands of Afghans into the country. The accusation has renewed questions about the vetting process for a variety of entry programs, including asylum.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, in announcing the review of asylum cases, accused the previous administration of failing to vet the applicants “on a massive scale.”
The man identified as the suspect was said to have worked with the C.I.A. and fled Afghanistan in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a program born after the sudden fall of the Afghan government in 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces and the Taliban took control of the country. The suspect received asylum from the U.S. government in April, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly.
At the time of the collapse of Afghanistan’s government, the Biden administration faced accusations of abandoning allies in the country, as fears grew that those who helped the U.S. military and people involved in civil society, like journalists, would face serious threats.
Biden administration officials insisted then that Afghan nationals who came through the program had been properly vetted and screened, but their critics pointed to an inspector general report that later found significant flaws in the process. A more recent audit, focusing on the F.B.I.’s involvement, said the security risks from those earlier flaws had been “largely mitigated” as the F.B.I. continued to investigate and vet Afghan nationals after they were paroled into the United States.
Reprinted from The New York Times
