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OPINION:
Washington is no stranger to terrorism. In 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists tried to assassinate President Truman. In 1954, another group of Puerto Rican nationalists wounded five members of Congress in a shooting spree, and in 1983, a Marxist-Leninist terrorist group set off a bomb outside the Senate chamber.
In May, two Israeli Embassy employees were murdered outside the Capital Jewish Museum because they were assumed to be Israeli and/or Jewish. The alleged murderer, Elias Rodriguez, reportedly traveled to Washington from Chicago to perpetrate the murders, which were acts of terrorism. While committing the murders, Mr. Rodriguez reportedly shouted, “Free Palestine!” and later told police, “I did it for Palestine. I did it for Gaza.”
Another terrorist attack hit the nation’s capital on Nov. 26. Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were shot, allegedly by another interstate traveler, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who left his home in Bellingham, Washington, to perpetrate the murder and assault. He reportedly shouted, “Allahu akbar!” while committing the crimes.
Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, age 20, died from her wounds. Another soldier, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, 24, is hanging on to life by a thread.
Mr. Lakanwal is an Afghan refugee who was admitted to this country as one of the approximately 76,000 people in President Biden’s 2021 Operation Allies Welcome. We had to bring our allies here, but Mr. Biden’s program obviously didn’t exclude our enemies.
Mr. Lakanwal was reportedly employed by the CIA for a time as a member of a supposedly “elite” unit in Kandahar province. He was apparently admitted to this country with his family in 2021 on humanitarian grounds. He reportedly claimed he and his family fled from Taliban violence. How were he and the rest of the 76,000 Afghans vetted before they came to this country? Barely, if at all.
Despite claims at the time by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas that all Afghans brought to the country were vetted, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said, “We focused on getting as many people out as fast as we can. … We’re doing accountings on the back end.”
That was obviously too little and too late. The Homeland Security Department has said thousands of those Afghans have been labeled as national security risks.
We may never know whether Mr. Lakanwal’s claim of fleeing from the Taliban is true. It’s possible that he was radicalized after arriving in the U.S. The CIA may have employed him despite undiscovered lies about his allegiance to one Islamic terrorist network or another. The investigation into the murder of Spc. Beckstrom and aggravated assault on Sgt. Wolfe may not reveal the intelligence surrounding Mr. Lakanwal’s arrival in the U.S. because it’s not directly relevant to whether he committed those crimes.
This raises many questions about the thousands of other Afghan refugees brought into this country by Mr. Biden. President Trump wrote on Truth Social, “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.”
How he can enact a “permanent pause” — an oxymoron — for all emigration from Third World nations is another question.
Mr. Trump also said he would end all federal benefits and subsidies for “noncitizens” and “denaturalize migrants who undermine domestic tranquility” and deport any foreign national deemed a public charge, security risk or “non-compatible with Western civilization.” That would seem to include Rep. Ilhan Omar, Minnesota Democrat, who was born in Somalia.
Mr. Trump didn’t list the nations from which he would “permanently pause” migration. He cannot identify them by Islamic majorities any more than he can ban migrants from Christian-majority nations. Either would be unconstitutional.
What Mr. Trump needs to do is a “deep-dive” vetting of all the people who were admitted under Mr. Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. We should gather every bit of intelligence information about those people and throw out any who entered the U.S. under pretenses.
Mr. Trump has already paused all immigration applications from Afghanistan. He can do more.
No one from any nation controlled by terrorists or terrorist sympathizers should be allowed into the United States. Mali is a perfect example because it is governed by al Qaeda. Others, such as Syria, are questionable at best. The president could bar all visas from those nations, as he has for Afghanistan.
The United States should welcome nearly all those who apply to immigrate to the country legally. We’re always told that we’re a nation of immigrants, and we are, but those who come here illegally should be returned to their native states. Mr. Trump has deported many illegal aliens, and he should be praised for that. Those who have committed crimes should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. For Mr. Lakanwal, that may mean the death penalty.
America has a duty to protect its borders, and part of that protection is deporting illegal aliens and expelling those who lie in order to gain admission.
• Jed Babbin is a national security and foreign affairs columnist for The Washington Times and a contributing editor for The American Spectator.
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