We’re all aware of the killing of Sarah Beckstrom, a West Virginia National Guard member. The other National Guard member wounded in the shooting has been identified as U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe. President Trump has stated that Wolfe is in “very bad shape” and “fighting for his life.”
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, is the suspect in the shooting. Lakanwal apparently disappeared for a period of two weeks before the attack and drove across the country from his home in Bellingham, Washington. In D.C., video confirms he pulled out a .357 Magnum-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver and fired on the Guardsmen.
These heinous acts hurt the heart of our nation, but that heartache soon turns to anger. The anger stems from the fact that Lakanwal is an Afghan man who was granted refuge in the U.S. after the Taliban takeover in 2021. It’s irrelevant to me that the CIA has said Lakanwal had been part of a CIA-backed Afghan “partner force” in Kandahar province, and was, therefore, a Taliban target and thus he and his family were candidates for evacuation from Afghanistan in 2021.
He wasn’t vetted properly, to say the very least.
In his inimitable way, President Trump has clearly stated his plan to halt, in a sweeping fashion, immigration and asylum claims from Third World Countries until our immigration system can catch up. He has also clarified his broad legal authority to do so. In a Truth Social post, Trump cited Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, which allows the president to “suspend the entry” of non-U.S. citizens whenever it is deemed “detrimental” to the national interest:
“Whenever the President finds that the entry of any aliens or of any class of aliens into the United States would be detrimental to the interests of the United States, he may by proclamation, and for such period as he shall deem necessary, suspend the entry of all aliens or any class of aliens as immigrants or nonimmigrants, or impose on the entry of aliens any restrictions he may deem to be appropriate,” Trump wrote.
Part and parcel of this, Trump has vowed to specifically stop immigration from certain countries, reverse Biden-era admissions policies and remove foreign nationals he considers public threats, security risks or simply “non-compatible with Western Civilization.” Trump also promises to end federal benefits for noncitizens, denaturalize migrants accused of undermining “domestic tranquility,” and to expand deportations.
This is what millions of Americans were voting for when they re-elected President Trump in November 2024.
We must recall that the Biden Administration—from President Biden’s very first day in the White House—did everything it could to create wide-open borders. Pres. Biden permitted and encouraged this invasion with its accompanying scourge of drugs—including fentanyl that kills Americans daily—crime, human and child trafficking, and terrorists who daily come over our southern (and, northern) border. It’s estimated that multiple millions of illegals came into our country during the Biden Administration. The presence of these nameless, faceless people creates dangerous issues of security, health, and safety, while causing a humanitarian disaster to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars American taxpayers are forced to bear.
This is intolerable.
No nation is a sovereign that cannot, or won’t, control its own borders and know and decide who is allowed into its country. As President Trump has pointed out, ‘a country without borders isn’t a country at all.’ That inviolable principle has been embedded in the history and survival of nations from time immemorial. The Biden Administration’s targeted and purposeful neglect in addressing this invasion continues to endanger our nation.
Trump has linked the shooting to Biden’s rushed and criminally disorganized Afghanistan debacle which contributed to the lack of adequate vetting in the evacuation rush of 2021. This is one more cost of the Biden Afghan failure. Trump Administration officials have now said they would reopen hundreds of thousands of cases decided under Biden to re-vet the immigrants in question—and possibly strip them of their legal status. This includes reviewing every green card of residents from “countries of concern.”
None of us know (or, frankly, care) when or why Lakanwal became radicalized in the U.S. He has now provided yet another tragically clear example of why immigration should be stopped, at least until a thorough and detailed system of vetting is put in place.
Shreveport attorney, Royal Alexander, worked in D.C. in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 8 years for two different Members of Congress from Louisiana.