A day before an Afghan national allegedly opened fire on National Guard soldiers near the White House, killing one and injuring another, the Christian humanitarian group World Relief issued a statement condemning President Donald Trump’s directive for expanded vetting of Afghans admitted under the Biden administration. World Relief, which has worked in the Washington State community where the suspect lived and has been reported to have helped with his resettlement, described the additional screening as a betrayal of due process, even as government reports have flagged vetting gaps following the Afghanistan withdrawal.
On November 25, World Relief — one of nine voluntary agencies contracted by the U.S. State Department to help refugees with housing and employment — released a statement opposing an internal U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo that called for new interviews and additional scrutiny of refugees who entered the United States during the Biden administration. According to the Daily Wire, the statement responded to a policy move President Donald Trump had ordered to tighten screening of Afghans admitted since January 2021, including those who arrived after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In the statement, World Relief President and CEO Myal Greene labeled the additional vetting a “moral and ethical betrayal of due process,” and Vice President Matt Soerens warned it would risk “retraumatiz[ing]” refugees brought to the United States. Greene emphasized what he described as the rigor of existing procedures, saying refugees admitted through the U.S. refugee resettlement program “have undergone some of the most rigorous vetting of any immigrant lawfully admitted into the United States,” and arguing that the re‑interview initiative amounted to “a calculated effort to strip lawful status from thoroughly-vetted, law-abiding people.”(dailywire.com)
The next day, November 26, 29‑year‑old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly ambushed two members of the West Virginia National Guard on a high‑visibility patrol near the Farragut West Metro station at 17th and I streets in downtown Washington, D.C., a few blocks from the White House. Charging documents and multiple news reports state that he shouted “Allahu akbar” while opening fire. Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, 20, later died of her wounds, while Staff Sergeant Andrew Wolfe, 24, remains hospitalized in serious or critical condition, according to officials and court filings.(apnews.com)(nypost.com)(en.wikipedia.org)
Lakanwal entered the United States in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, the program used to bring vulnerable Afghans to the country following the U.S. withdrawal, and was later granted asylum in 2025, according to public records and news reports.(en.wikipedia.org) The Daily Wire, citing a November 27 report by The New York Times, says World Relief was involved in resettling Lakanwal in Washington State. The Daily Wire further notes that the State Department had designated Whatcom County, Washington — which includes Bellingham, where Lakanwal lived with his wife and five children — as a resettlement site for Afghan evacuees under Operation Allies Welcome, and that World Relief’s local office there was tasked with helping new arrivals integrate.(dailywire.com) World Relief has told NPR it cannot confirm whether it served any specific Afghan client, including Lakanwal, without authorization from federal partners, according to the Daily Wire’s account.(dailywire.com)
World Relief, founded in 1944 by the National Association of Evangelicals, receives substantial federal funding for its work. Daily Wire reporting, citing the organization’s financial records, notes that in 2021 World Relief took in about $56 million in federal grants and contracts, compared with roughly $13 million in private contributions.(dailywire.com)
Federal watchdogs have documented problems with Afghan vetting. A 2022 report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found that the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan left significant information gaps in U.S. systems. In a sample of nearly 89,000 evacuee records, Customs and Border Protection was missing critical data — including names, dates of birth and travel document details — in thousands of cases, and investigators concluded that some evacuees had been admitted or paroled into the United States without being fully vetted.(dailywire.com) A follow‑up review in 2024 described a fragmented process across CBP, USCIS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement that led to missing information and some background checks being deferred until after evacuees departed Afghanistan.(dailywire.com)
During his April 2025 confirmation hearing to lead the National Counterterrorism Center, Joe Kent said that, after reviewing National Counterterrorism Center data, he believed more than 1,400 Afghans with suspected links to ISIS had been admitted into the United States, according to testimony cited by the Daily Wire.(dailywire.com) The public record does not indicate that those individuals have necessarily been charged with crimes, and Kent did not provide individual case details.
Responding to questions from the Daily Wire after the Washington shooting, Soerens said that, based on news reports, the alleged perpetrator “did not enter the United States as a refugee and thus would not have been subject to the re‑interview process” that World Relief had criticized.(dailywire.com) The outlet reported that Trump’s vetting directive also applies to Afghans admitted through humanitarian parole under Operation Allies Welcome, covering roughly 76,000 evacuees and other Afghan arrivals who entered the United States between January 20, 2021, and February 20, 2025.(dailywire.com) World Relief has said it stands by its condemnation of the additional vetting and has not changed its position opposing the policy, according to the Daily Wire.(dailywire.com)
