There are nearly 2,000 Afghans in the U.S. with ties to known or suspected terrorists, and the Biden administration failed to vet many Afghans under its Operation Allies Welcome program, a senior official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) told the Daily Caller.
“Among 2021 Afghan evacuees, approximately 3,000 known jihadists have been located in the United States, and approximately 17,000 individuals with suspected terrorist ties have been located in the U.S.,” the senior ODNI official stated, citing a National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) intelligence analysis . (RELATED: Ilhan Omar Declares Somali Criminals In US ‘Are Not Going Anywhere’)
Operation Allies Welcome was a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) led initiative to resettle Afghans, and it was launched in August 2021. The alleged shooter of the two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C., was an Afghan national who came to the U.S. under that program.
Over 1,400 Afghans with links to various terrorist organizations, including ISIS, entered into the U.S. under Biden, the official noted. Additionally, more than 4,000 migrants from Central Asia were transported into the U.S. through an ISIS-affiliated smuggling network, the official added.
The official said that although eight of those migrants were arrested, several hundred more were released into the U.S., including 600 Tajiks and Uzbeks with ties to ISIS.
Officials arrested a third Afghan admitted under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program, Jaan Shah Safi, on Wednesday. He was arrested in Waynesboro, Virginia, for allegedly providing support to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-Khorasan (ISIS-K). He is allegedly one of the almost 2,000 Afghans with links to known or suspected terrorists, the ODNI official stated.
Mohammad Dawood Alokozay was arrested Nov. 25 by local authorities and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) after allegedly threatening to bomb targets in Fort Worth, Texas. Alokozay was also paroled into the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome, according to federal authorities.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal was arrested for allegedly shooting two National Guard members on Nov. 26, critically wounding Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe and killing West Virginia Army National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom.
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 26: Members of law enforcement, including the U.S. Secret Service and the Washington Metropolitan Police Department, respond to a shooting near the White House on November 26, 2025 in Washington, DC. At least two National Guardsmen have been shot blocks from the White House. According to reports, a suspect is being detained at a local hospital. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“This individual is just ONE of over 1,400 Afghans with terror ties identified by NCTC but ignored and let in by the negligent Biden administration,” NCTC Director Joe Kent said in response to Safi’s arrest.
The 3,000 “known jihadists” and the 17,000 with suspected ties to terrorism accompanied the unvetted immigration of nearly 190,000 Afghan aliens who were allowed onto U.S. soil before authorities could determine what their intentions were, according to a DHS statement.
Prior to former President Joe Biden, the vetting process for the visa Lakanwal received usually took upwards of 18 months, and asylum seekers would apply from a third country, the ODNI official told the Caller.
“Biden threw all this out the window and let millions in,” the official said.
Instead, Biden used the war-zone vetting standard to determine whether an Afghan alien could be transferred into the U.S., according to the official.
DULLES, VIRGINIA – AUGUST 31: Refugees board a bus at Dulles International Airport that will take them to a refugee processing center after being evacuated from Kabul following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan on August 31, 2021 in Dulles, Virginia. The Department of Defense announced yesterday that the U.S. military had completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, ending 20 years of war. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
From 2011–2021, Lakanwal was subject to tactical wartime vetting to determine if he could work with U.S. forces against terrorist organizations in Afghanistan. After 2021, Lakanwal’s vetting only determined if he had communications with — or ties to — any terrorist organization, according to the official.
That vetting did not analyze whether it was suitable for him to live in the U.S., the official noted. Lakanwal struggled to assimilate into the U.S., and he distanced himself from his family and was unable to maintain a job, according to emails obtained by the Associated Press (AP).
Lakanwal previously worked with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Afghanistan before entering America.
“This individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” CIA Director John Ratcliffe told the Caller in a statement. “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.”
Referring to the shooting, Kent said on X, “Incidents like this aren’t isolated—they’re the predictable outcome of prioritizing speed and volume over security.”
“Biden endangered national security by allowing this war-zone vetting standard to be used to grant Afghans, like Lakanwal, access to live alongside the American people,” the ODNI official said.
NCTC had warned the Biden administration about Safi and others, but the administration disregarded NCTC staff who identified terrorist threats, prioritizing mass migration instead, the official claimed.
.@POTUS: “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.” pic.twitter.com/jAPGBP5HH2
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) November 27, 2025
President Donald Trump has since called for the reexamination of every migrant who has entered the U.S. from Afghanistan under the Biden Administration.
“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,” he said.
NCTC is attempting to identify more terrorists in the U.S. by vetting individuals of concern and providing DHS with a list of migrants with known or suspected links to terrorists to help with removal efforts.
“Under the Trump administration, NCTC is putting the safety of Americans first, by arming law enforcement with actionable intelligence to apprehend threats within our homeland created by the last administration’s insufficient vetting standards and dangerous open borders,” the official said. (RELATED: Foreign Leaders Caught Orchestrating Campaign To Censor American Right-Wing Media Companies)
The senior official pointed to the successes of Trump’s NCTC, such as bolstering communication effectiveness through its Interagency Fusion Cell (NIFC), adding 38,000 identities to the classified interagency database and using its experience tracking terrorists to identify hundreds of illegal immigrants with ties to MS-13, Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel.
“The reality that Islamist terrorism continues to pose the greatest, both short and long-term threat to the American people, our freedom and Western civilization,” ODNI Director Tulsi Gabbard said in a statement obtained by the Caller.
