The National Guard shootings, TPS vetting and “remigration”

The National Guard shootings, TPS vetting and “remigration”

In the wake of the horrific shootings of the West Virginia national guardsmen in Washington by an Afghan refugee, the president has placed the blame on Joe Biden. The shooter was an Afghan national, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who came to the country under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome established following the U.S. military’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. The program was to bring into the country those Afghans who had supported and aided the US in its 8 year conflict in Afghanistan and would have faced retribution by the Taliban. By March 2023 in a report to Congress by the Biden Administration noted 90,000 evacuees had been resettled to the United States under OAW and had been vetted. Several hundred were refused admission into the country after failing a screening and vetting process that involved DHS, the Department of Defense and the FBI.

The president claimed otherwise saying “He (Lakanwal) was flown in by the Biden administration in September 2021 on those infamous flights that everybody was talking about. Nobody knew who was coming in. Nobody knew anything about it. His status was extended under legislation signed by President Biden, a disastrous president, the worst in the history of our country.” CIA Director John Ratcliffe said that Lakanwal worked with the CIA during the War in Afghanistan. Ratcliffe said. “This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here. Our citizens and servicemembers deserve far better than to endure the ongoing fallout from the Biden Administration ’s catastrophic failures. God bless our brave troops.”

I’m confused Wasn’t the program intended to help those who had helped us like Lakannwal? Lakanwal’s had worked with the U.S. government but the president said that Lakanwal had “gone cuckoo” after arriving in the United States. But if Lakanwal had “gone cuckoo” after arriving doesn’t necessarily mean that the program was a failure. Does it?

Lakanwal had worked for the CIA. He and others like him were the reason for Operation Allies Welcome. The Biden Administration had stated that he and others like him were vetted, contrary to what Trump and his administration are saying. U.S. Attorney for DC Jeanine Pirro (veteran of Fox’s The Five) called President Joe Biden’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan “disastrous” and called Operation Allies Welcome the program through which Lakanwal entered the United States, “absurd” saying “This is what happens in this country when people are let into this country who are not properly vetted.” 

Again, I am confused. The Biden administration reported to congress and claimed that screenings of Afghan evacuees were “biometric and biographic,” with agents ordered to enforce the vaccinations for polio, COVID-19 and measles, mumps and rubella. Screenings for child marriages, human trafficking and gender-based violence were emphasized along with any inclusion on no-fly lists and past flaggings by the U.S. military or allied military forces. The majority of those resettled were considered on a “case-by-case basis” by Customs and Border Protection. Again some were denied entry.

Yet Trump said “Hundreds of thousands of people poured into our Country totally unvetted and unchecked. We will fix it, but will never forget what Crooked Joe Biden and his Thugs did to our Country! We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden, and we must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country. If they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”

So I guess the charge now is that they were not “properly vetted.” But they were not immediately released into the country and were questioned and investigated at 200 US facilities before being let into the country and that hundreds were denied admission. This is in direct contradiction to what is being said by Trump and his officials. Is anyone surprised that he is blaming Biden? Then there is the explosive breaking news that may well just be an internet rumor that the national guard shooter had been vetted again by the Trump Administration and then granted legal asylum in April 2025. I have yet to see an administration denial. All of the major news outlets have grabbed onto this story because If this is true then the blame shifts from the Biden Administration to Trump’s.

What is clear is that this incident has allowed the president to continue his policy to drastically reduce immigration and deport immigrants, even those who entered the country legally. Trump called to end immigration from the “third world.” He said “I will permanently pause migration from all Third World Countries to allow the U.S. system to fully recover, terminate all of the millions of Biden illegal admissions, including those signed by Sleepy Joe Biden’s Autopen, and remove anyone who is not a net asset to the United States, or is incapable of loving our Country, end all Federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens of our Country, denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility, and deport any Foreign National who is a public charge, security risk, or non-compatible with Western Civilization. These goals will be pursued with the aim of achieving a major reduction in illegal and disruptive populations, including those admitted through an unauthorized and illegal Autopen approval process. “Only REVERSE MIGRATION can fully cure this situation. Other than that, HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL, except those that hate, steal, murder, and destroy everything that America stands for — You won’t be here for long!”

After the president used the term “reverse migration,” Homeland Security posted “The stakes have never been higher, and the goal has never been more clear: Remigration now.” This is unfortunate, “remigration”is a term favored by Great Replacement theorists, white nationalist movements and those advocating the forced removal of ethnic, religious, and immigrant populations. The far right in Europe use the term meaning ethnic cleansing. Please tell me this was not a deliberate use of the word by this Administration.

Trump imposed a travel ban on immigrants from 19 countries, including Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow said that the department would reexamine every immigrant holding a Green Card from a “country of concern.” The president claims refugees are “the leading cause of social dysfunction in America,” linking them to “failed schools, high crime, urban decay, overcrowded hospitals, housing shortages, and large deficits.” He left out arthritis, heart congrestion and erectile dysfunction.

In particular, he singled out Somali migrants, declaring they are “completely taking over the once great State of Minnesota”and describing “Somalian gangs… roving the streets looking for ‘prey.’ Gangs of Somalians come from a country that doesn’t even have a government — no laws, no water, no military, no nothing — as their representatives in our country preach to us about our Constitution and how our country is no good.” He is obviously referring to Rep. Ilhan Omar. He has also called Minnesota Governor Tim Walz “seriously retarded.”

“Minnesota, under [Gov. Tim] Waltz, is a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity. I am, as President of the UnitedStates, hereby terminating, effective immediately, the Temporary Protected Status (TPS Program) for Somalis in Minnesota.” Walz said the news was “not surprising.” “It’s not surprising that the President has chosen to broadly target an entire community.This is what he does to change the subject.”

Sen. Amy Klobucher (D-MN) said Trump’s order “another late night threat” to go “after people in just one state w/ legal status.” “Maybe the President should spend his evenings working on bringing down costs instead of targeting Somalis who have been in our country for years” Minnesota’s other Sen. Tina Smith also said “He can’t think of anything else to do on a Friday night.” “That’s who he is, but it’s not who we are.”

Of the 90,000 Somalis in the country only 705 are on Temporary Protected Status. Most Somali Minnesotans were either born here or are naturalized citizens. Omar said “We do not blame the lawlessness of an individual on a whole community.” She also added that Trump does not have the authority to take away the Somalis citizenship and that they are “here to stay.” She also asserted that Trump was taking away TPS status only of the Somalis but of course that is not true. Homeland Security’s Kristi (Border Barbi) announced that as of 11:59 PM February 3, 2026 the 500,000 Haitians who have been granted TPS will lose that status and must leave. Noem also terminated the TPS designation for the 600,000 Venezuelans in the country and ordered them to leave as well. Also 120,000 Ukrainians will lose TPS status and must leave. Apparently the only safe group is the white Afrikaners of South Africa.

Lastly, the usual gaggle of liberal talking heads are blaming the shootings of the national guardsmen on the president. This is shameful but expected and I won’t even grace them or their comments here.