Trump Comments on Afghan Resettlement Following Shooting
On Thursday night, former President Donald Trump stated that the Afghans brought to the U.S. after the chaotic withdrawal in Afghanistan were “not vetted.” His comments arose during a press interaction where a reporter inquired whether all Afghans in the U.S. should be held accountable for the fatal shooting of two National Guardsmen by a man identified as an Afghan national just before Thanksgiving.
“No, but we’ve had a lot of issues with the Afghans because they’ve been on these planes a lot,” Trump mentioned, emphasizing that there were no proper screening processes in place for those boarding the flights. “They just piled onto the plane,” he added.
He continued, expressing concerns that many of the individuals evacuated were criminals and suggested that his administration had managed to remove “many of them.”
When asked how Afghans who are in the U.S. legally might feel about the situation, he speculated, “They can’t be happy, because if you look at Somalia, they’re taking over Minnesota. With everything happening in Minnesota, they have a lot of issues with gangs. We have an incompetent governor… a drug governor. They’re not going to be pleased with what’s going on.”
Addressing the issue of Afghan resettlement, he reiterated, “When it comes to Afghans, we have a problem because there are so many bad people coming on the plane. In a sense, whoever the physically strongest people were… they got on the plane. There were no checks. They just overwhelmed the plane. We didn’t know who they were.”
Rahmanullah Rakanwar, the suspected shooter involved in the tragic incident that resulted in the death of National Guard member Sarah Beckstrom and injuries to another guard, Andrew Wolf, allegedly entered the U.S. through the Biden administration’s Operation Welcoming Allies following the flawed September 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
In light of the shooting, which Trump labeled an “act of terrorism,” he announced plans to review the status of all foreign nationals who entered the country from Afghanistan. On Thanksgiving, he declared his intention to “permanently end immigration from all Third World countries.”
