Trump Is Ready to Send Afghan Refugees to Their Death

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the 29-year-old charged with shooting two National Guard members the day before Thanksgiving, had participated in the Zero Units. The ensuing attention on the controversial CIA program—and, by proxy, the Afghan refugee committee—shifted the Trump administration’s attention in a cataclysmic way, according to community advocates and local leaders in Dallas-Fort Worth.

The day of the shooting, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took aim at Operation Allies Welcome, the program that facilitated the refugees’ arrival in the U.S., blaming it for admitting “unvetted” immigrants into the country. (Never mind that Lakanwal was granted his refugee status under the current Trump administration.)

Earlier this month, in a brief appearance before the House Homeland Security Committee, Noem offered a dangerous new lens on the embraced allies, lamenting that the program had potentially let in “up to 100,000 people” that she claimed “may be here to do us harm.”