Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, has “zero confidence” in what the Biden administration did to vet Afghan nationals coming to the United States in the wake of the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington before Thanksgiving.

“We just concluded a briefing from U.S. Customs and Immigration Service officials, which gives me zero confidence that the Afghan nationals who came to the United States were adequately vetted,” Cornyn told members of the press at the Capitol. 

“Unfortunately, one of the National Guardsmen is dead, but there’s also been subsequent arrests of individuals,” the Texas senator continued.

The Texas lawmaker articulated how the previous administration’s border policies failed to thoroughly vet those that were welcomed into the United States. 

“This is part of the open border policies of the Biden administration that really is not confined to Afghan nationals, where they use this process known as parole, which basically means massive numbers of individuals simply waived in a country, and we know next to zero about them,” Cornyn added. 

Republicans were sounding the alarm about the lack of vetting of Afghan nationals as far back as October 2021. 

“Some of these individuals are being paroled into the interior of the United States, or they are even prematurely leaving military bases before undergoing proper and necessary vetting,” Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., then the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Border Security, told his colleagues at a joint hearing on Oct. 21, 2021.

The hearing focused on Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden administration that allowed National Guardsmen shooting suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal to come into the country. Lakanwal had been evacuated with his family from Afghanistan by American military forces in August 2021. 

Then-House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark E. Green, R-Tenn., subsequently sent a letter with three House colleagues including Higgins to Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas in May 2023 inquiring about the vetting and screening of Afghan evacuees. 

At least one person expressed concern about Lakanwal’s state writing a January 2024 email reported by The New York Times that, “Rahmanullah has not been functional as a person, father and provider since March of last year.” The New York Post recently reported that more than 5,000 Afghans who came to the U.S. after the U.S. withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 had been flagged by the Department of Homeland Security for “national security” issues.

Cornyn contended that it was the executive branch that was at fault.

“Well, this, this individual, these Afghan nationals, were not, did not come in through any legislative act that we passed. It was strictly done by the Biden administration using what’s known as parole,” the senator said.

“But parole is supposed to be done on a case by case basis, and it’s illegitimate to try to do it in the way of massive tens of thousands of people into the country that you know nothing about,” Cornyn continued.

“My impression is we do not know where [the Afghan nationals] are. The Biden administration simply lost track of them once they came into the country again without proper vetting,” Cornyn explained.

President Donald Trump for his part has sought to rectify the mistakes of his predecessor by promising to “reexamine every single alien who’s entered our country from Afghanistan under Biden” and to “take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here or add benefit to our country.”

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