The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) Editorial Board rushed to the defense of Afghan refugees in an op-ed published on Thursday, saying they “shouldn’t be blamed for the violent act of one man.”
On Wednesday, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal — an Afghan national who came to the U.S. as part of former President Joe Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021 after the botched Afghanistan withdrawal — allegedly opened fire on two National Guardsmen stationed in Washington, DC. After the attack, President Donald Trump announced that his administration would “reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” under Biden. Following Trump’s remarks, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services announced an indefinite stop to immigration requests from Afghan nationals “pending further review of security and vetting protocols.”
The WSJ Editorial Board warned of issuing “collective punishment” following the attack.
“President Trump immediately linked the shooting to Joe Biden’s Afghan debacle, and officials were quick to denounce the lack of adequate vetting in the evacuation rush of 2021. When and how the shooter was approved for entry will become clearer, and no doubt an orderly withdrawal would have allowed more careful investigation. This is one more cost of the Biden Administration’s Afghan failure,” the board wrote.
“But even careful vetting is imperfect, and Rahmanullah Lakanwal may have become radicalized in the U.S. This has been known to happen even with the children of refugees who grow up in America,” they continued:
Some will say this means the U.S. should never admit such refugees, but the alternative is abandoning allies who assist Americans in war to the retribution of our enemies. The fate of Afghans, men and women, who worked with the U.S. has often been brutal. You can be sure Americans will fight overseas again, and our troops will need allies on the ground to succeed. How many will assist us if they believe there will be no exit for them if the U.S. leaves with the enemy triumphant?
The board concluded by saying it “would be a shame if this single act of betrayal became the excuse for deporting all Afghan refugees in the U.S.”
“Tens of thousands are building new lives here in peace and are contributing to their communities,” they wrote. “They shouldn’t be blamed for the violent act of one man. Collective punishment of all Afghans in the U.S. won’t make America safer and it might embitter more against the United States.”
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As Breitbart’s John Binder reported, whistleblowers and inspectors general have repeatedly told Congress that the Biden administration failed to properly vet Afghans whom it resettled across American communities.
In 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Inspector General (IG) issued a bombshell report detailing how the Biden administration imported Afghans who were “not fully vetted” and could “pose a risk to national security.”
In February 2022, a DOD IG report revealed that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans who arrived in the U.S. and that about 50 Afghans were flagged for “significant security concerns” after their resettlement.
