Vance’s Afghan refugee vetting warnings resurface after DC shooting

Vice President JD Vance has long warned about the US refugee screening process – dating back to the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and the refugees who arrived afterward. Now, Vance’s previous remarks on the issue are resurfacing after two National Guard soldiers were shot and killed Wednesday in Washington.

Law enforcement officials identified the shooting suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who entered the United States legally in 2021 as part of the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program that aimed to help resettle Afghan refugees in the United States.

In 2021, Vance posted a video on social media in response to then-Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who argued that the United States had an obligation to help refugees seeking to leave Afghanistan.

“Yes, let’s help the Afghans who helped us, but let’s make sure we vet them properly, so we don’t have people thinking they should blow themselves up in a mall because someone looked at their wife the wrong way,” Vance said. a veteran of the Marine Corps, said in the video clip.

Vice President JD Vance has long warned about the U.S. refugee vetting process. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press)

ALLEGED DC SHOOTER ENTERED US AS PART OF AFGHAN RESETTLEMENT MAYORKAS WISHED WOULD BE DONE “QUICKLY AND SAFELY”

Vance also claimed that a Pew Research Center survey found that four in 10 Afghans believe suicide bombings are justified to protect Islam.

Fox News Digital could not independently confirm the existence of the poll. However, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, a state-funded US media organization, reported the poll in 2013 with the same statistics.

Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

Top Afghan religious leaders who make up the Afghan Ulema Council have previously issued Islamic rulings banning suicide bombings and have asserted that such attacks are not in accordance with Islamic teachings.

More recently, Vance expressed similar concerns in an interview with CBS’ Margaret Brennan in January, where he said that “we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs, we absolutely cannot let thousands of people into our country unvetted.”

WHO IS THE DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING SUSPECT? WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT THE AFGHAN NATIONAL RAHMANULLAH LAKANWAL

Undated file photo of Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers in Washington, November 26, 2025. (Ministry of Justice)

Specifically, Vance pointed the finger at an Afghan national, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who at the time was charged with allegedly planning a terrorist attack on or around Election Day 2024. Since then, Tawhedi pleaded guilty to two terrorism-related charges in June.

Tawhedi and his co-conspirator Abdullah Haji Zada, also from Afghanistan, were arrested on October 7, 2024, after purchasing firearms and ammunition from undercover FBI agents, according to the Justice Department. Court documents claim the two men purchased two AK-47 rifles, 500 rounds of ammunition and 10 magazines with the intention of carrying out a mass-casualty attack in the United States.

Zada, 19, was sentenced in early November to 15 years in federal prison.

Vance referenced his 2021 remarks on Wednesday after the shooting in Washington and signaled that future steps would be taken to crack down on the refugee screening process.

“I remember in 2021 criticizing Biden’s policy of opening the floodgates to unvetted Afghan refugees,” Vance said Wednesday. “Friends sent me messages calling me racist. It was a moment of clarification.”

LAW ENFORCEMENT RESPONDS AFTER 2 NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS SHOT NEAR THE WHITE HOUSE

“Many of our constituents will demand not only words, but action, and that is an entirely appropriate response,” Vance said Wednesday. “We will first bring the shooter to justice, and then we must redouble our efforts to deport people who have no right to reside in our country.”

U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, died Thursday from her injuries in Wednesday’s shooting, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe remains in critical condition, said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro.

Fox News Digital first reported that Lakenwal had associated with the U.S. government, including the CIA, as a member of a partner force in Afghanistan.

File photo of National Guard Sarah Beckstrom, who died following a shooting in Washington, DC, on the evening of November 26, 2025. (Ministry of Justice)

DETAILS EMERGE ON ALLEGED CIA NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTER SERVED IN AFGHANISTAN

In response to the shooting, Trump said in a social media post Thursday that he would permanently suspend migration from “all third world countries.”

Additionally, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services chief Joseph Edlow said Thursday that in accordance with Trump’s orders, he had “ordered a rigorous, large-scale review of every green card for every alien from every country of concern.”

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The White House did not provide additional information on which countries would be affected and referred Fox News Digital to Trump’s social media post.

Brooke Singman of Fox News contributed to this report.