As the Trump administration cancels visas for Afghans and moves to review the status of those already in the country, some Republicans lawmakers aren’t so eager to exclude people who worked with U.S. troops.
“A promise is a promise,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said.
President Donald Trump and his administration vowed to crack down on Afghan immigrants after two National Guard members were shot in Washington last week, killing one and critically injuring another. The suspect is an Afghan national who worked with a CIA-backed unit, entered the country in 2021 following the United States’ withdrawal from Afghanistan and was approved for asylum earlier this year.
In the days after the shooting, the Trump administration announced a halt on visas for Afghans and a pause in asylum applications.
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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on Tuesday paused all immigration applications — the decision also extends to permanent residents seeking citizenship — for people from 19 countries of concern that the president listed earlier this year in a travel ban, including Afghanistan.
But many Republicans have advocated for doing more, not less, to help Afghans who worked with U.S. troops. And while they said they want anyone admitted to the U.S. to be extensively vetted, they haven’t reversed their view that Afghans who helped American troops should be allowed to resettle in the U.S.
Bacon introduced the WELCOMED Act in 2021 guaranteeing full refugee benefits for Afghans. He said the U.S. should have high standards for vetting, “but to say that we’re not going to bring anybody that served by our side and who helped maybe save American lives during this war in Afghanistan, I don’t think that’s right either.”
Many Republicans have supported legislation or otherwise advocated for Afghans who worked with the U.S. to resettle here. Earlier this year, after Trump slashed refugee admissions, Republican veterans privately and publicly pushed for him to admit more Afghans, NOTUS previously reported.
All of that could be at risk after the shooting.
“Unfortunately, this one bad case impacts the entire program,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, who this year sponsored a bill ensuring the reunification of military personnel and veterans with Afghan family members stuck in the relocation pipeline.
McCaul said the alleged shooter appeared to have been fully vetted.
The suspected shooter, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, worked with a CIA-backed group in Afghanistan. People who worked with that group were consistently screened and vetted during their time at the agency. Afghans who were admitted to the U.S. following the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 underwent vetting that often included being held at military bases or other countries as they completed the vetting process. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said authorities believe Lakanwal was “radicalized since he’s been here in this country.”
Many Republicans who spoke to NOTUS agreed that they saw a review of the vetting process as necessary, but that it should not involve abandoning Afghan allies who aided the United States.
“We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. There needs to be a full review as to what happened and how this individual was granted asylum,” Rep. Mike Lawler of New York told NOTUS. “Obviously there are a number of Afghan refugees who helped us tremendously over 20 years, and if they were sent back to Afghanistan would probably be subjected to punishment or death.”
Sen. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana highlighted a bipartisan bill he co-introduced in August, called the Fulfilling Promises to Afghan Allies Act, which required the State Department to create a process for Afghans to apply for ally status and get referrals to obtain asylum.
“The better thing to do would have been to pass the bill I was on that would have required more thorough vetting. If that had been passed, this would not have happened,” Cassidy said.
Asked whether he had any concerns if allies couldn’t relocate to the U.S. or were deported, Cassidy said, “I’ve been so consumed with health care, I’ve actually not been thinking through the ramifications of that.”
Meanwhile, other Republicans who had previously publicly supported aiding the relocation of Afghans who worked with U.S. forces were quick to defer to Trump’s new policies.
“Obviously we need to revisit the issue and see if they were actually properly vetted. So I think I’m OK with the administration putting a pause to really find out what type of mechanism was in place, what kind of vetting process was taken into place. So I’m OK with that part,” Rep. Young Kim of California told NOTUS, emphasizing that she hoped the pause would be temporary.
Rep. Morgan Luttrell, a Navy veteran whose brother served in Afghanistan, told NOTUS that he “would feel certain in saying that the administration cares for our Afghanistan brothers and sisters as much as I do that fought alongside us to keep us alive.”
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