Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., attends a Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing in the Dirksen building on Thursday, June 26, 2025. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Lakanwal, 29, was charged with two counts of assault with intent to kill, one count of murder and one count of possession of a firearm during a crime of violence, for the alleged shooting late last month.
The lawmakers, including Sens. Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; Susan Collins, R-Maine; James Risch, R-Idaho; James Lankford, R-Okla.; John Cornyn, R-Texas; Ted Budd, R-N.C.; Mike Rounds, R-S.D.; and Todd Young, R-Ind.; wrote that the Biden administration’s assertion that all Afghan nationals were following the withdrawal from the country in 2021 were subject to "enhanced vetting" was untrue.
DC NATIONAL GUARD SHOOTING SUSPECT FORMALLY CHARGED: 'NOTHING IS OFF THE TABLE'
The Pentagon building in Arlington, Virginia, on Friday, April 21, 2023. (Tom Brenner/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
A later report agreed with the Pentagon’s findings and "further found that approximately 31,000 Afghan evacuees were allowed into the country before DHS could form a taskforce to vet and support their resettlement."
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"Congress is further aware of potentially hundreds of evacuees that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has found to have potential links to terrorism after their arrival in the United States," they wrote.
The lawmakers demanded that the Pentagon, Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community revisit the vetting standards for Afghan nationals, and implement the vetting procedures recommended by the Department of War years ago, identify and locate those evacuees discovered to have significant security concerns, and "seek immediate removal of such evacuees from the United States back to Afghanistan or other third countries, as appropriate."
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-republicans-demand-vetting-overhaul-after-shooting-national-guard-members