[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 202 (Wednesday, December 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8463-S8464]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                              Immigration

  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, last week, the day before 
Thanksgiving, our Nation's Capital experienced a horrific tragedy. Just 
blocks from the White House, two National Guard members were ambushed 
by a gunman. One of the victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, 
tragically, succumbed to her wounds. The second, 24-year-old Andrew 
Wolfe, is currently fighting for his life.
  We join thousands of Americans who are praying for him and for a full 
and complete recovery, lifting up his family and also lifting up the 
family of Sarah Beckstrom.
  Now, these two young, brave, patriotic Americans answered the call of 
duty to serve their Nation in uniform, and, for that, they were gunned 
down in cold blood.
  What do we know about the shooting suspect? He is a 29-year-old 
Afghan national. He entered the country in 2021 during President 
Biden's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. He is

[[Page S8464]]

among nearly 200,000 Afghan nationals who were relocated to our country 
by the Biden administration under Operation Allies Welcome. This 
program was part of Biden's larger effort to make illegal immigration 
legal.
  At the time, my Republican colleagues and I demanded answers from the 
administration about how they could possibly vet all the evacuees amid 
this chaotic withdrawal.
  We must never forget that 13 U.S. servicemembers were murdered by a 
suicide bomber at the Abbey Gate during the evacuation, including SSG 
Ryan Knauss of Tennessee.
  The Biden administration, however, insisted that the evacuees were 
properly vetted. The morning after the Abbey Gate bombings, Biden's 
Press Secretary Jen Psaki told the American people that all Afghan 
nationals were ``screened and vetted prior to being allowed into the 
United States.''
  Well, that was a lie and a lie that has now cost the life of a U.S. 
servicemember.
  In 2022, an inspector general report from the Department of Homeland 
Security found that the Biden administration ``admitted or paroled 
evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States,'' noting 
that ``some information used to vet evacuees through U.S. government 
databases . . . was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing.''
  We can be grateful that President Trump is taking decisive action to 
strengthen vetting and prevent such a tragedy from ever happening 
again. He has halted visas for Afghan nationals and bolstered the 
vetting process for aliens from 19 high-risk countries. This is what it 
looks like when a President puts the American people first, and 
Congress should do everything possible to work with DHS and to support 
these efforts.