[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 202 (Wednesday, December 3, 2025)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8466-S8467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



             Parole Authority and Operation Allies Welcome

  Mr. CORNYN. Mr. President, I spoke earlier this week about the tragic 
incident that happened over the week of Thanksgiving here in 
Washington, DC, when two National Guardsmen were shot in the line of 
duty, and one of them died of her wounds.
  Today, I would like to spend a little bit more time discussing the 
perpetrator of this act of violence and how he happened to be in the 
country in the first place.
  The man who committed this crime was a 29-year-old Afghan national by 
the name of Rahmanullah Lakanwal. The Biden administration paroled him 
into the United States in 2021 as part of Operation Allies Welcome. He 
was not the recipient of any special immigrant visa process or 
processed through the overseas Afghan SIV Program. He was later granted 
asylum after his parole period expired.
  But I would like to dwell on the word ``parole'' for a minute so that 
people understand exactly how this shooter made his way into the United 
States and how he had come to stay here and commit these crimes.
  Ordinarily, under immigration law, Congress would be engaged and pass 
certain immigrant visa legislation saying that you need to meet these 
criteria, these standards, in order to qualify. That is not what 
happened to the shooter of these two West Virginia National Guardsmen. 
He was paroled into the country, which means that the Biden 
administration simply allowed him into the country without any sort of 
background check or any sort of vetting.
  We are more familiar with the word ``parole'' in the criminal law 
context, which comes to mind when people are released from prison 
following demonstrating good behavior, but in immigration law, 
``parole'' is a provision under U.S. law that allows the Secretary of 
Homeland Security to allow certain aliens--and that would be 
foreigners--on a case-by-case basis--and that is important. It would 
allow certain aliens, on a case-by-case basis, to temporarily enter the 
United States.
  Aliens who have been paroled into the United States are usually not 
eligible for entry into the United States or for a visa because they 
are barred by certain grounds of inadmissibility or removal that apply.
  Parole is not a lawful immigration status or formal admission to the 
United States. I know this is fairly technical, but it is really 
important in this context. This shooter was not admitted into the 
United States as a result of any legislation that Congress passed or 
any of us voted for. It was solely done by the Biden administration and 
by the Department of Homeland Security during his administration.
  Just as importantly, this power--this parole power--is only to be 
used in very limited circumstances, such as a medical emergency or 
because we find it is in our Nation's best interests, such as an 
individual alien cooperating with law enforcement or in a criminal 
prosecution.
  Aliens who are paroled into the United States are only allowed to be 
here temporarily and under certain conditions prescribed by the 
Secretary of Homeland Security. Significantly, they do not--they do 
not--undergo the same formal screening process as those who apply for a 
green card or a visa.
  Parole was never meant to be a vehicle for massive numbers of 
immigrants coming into the country or the sort of categorical parole 
done by the Biden administration, where people from certain countries 
were admitted by the tens of thousands, literally, each month. It is 
supposed to be done on a case-by-case basis.
  So what I am suggesting is these sorts of categorical paroles that 
the Biden administration issued--including the parole which resulted in 
this shooter being in Washington, DC, and attacking these two National 
Guard members--were illegitimate. It was an illegitimate use of this 
parole authority under U.S. law.
  The Biden administration's abuse of the immigration laws, of course, 
is well known, and their abuse of parole authority. The very notion of 
mass parole is what you might call an oxymoron. In other words, it is 
inconsistent--mass, or categorical, and parole. There is an inherent 
contradiction. Using this authority illegitimately to allow massive 
numbers of immigrants into the country defies the very nature and 
purpose of this authority.
  The Biden administration created a number of programs to extend 
parole status to immigrants from around the world. Under a program 
known as the CHNV, the Biden administration allowed as many as 30,000 
individuals per month from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela, as 
well as their immediate family members. They were admitted under this 
program of the Biden administration, again, illegitimately, using the 
parole authority to grant categorical or massive entry of these 
individuals into the United States. Under that program, they were 
allowed into the United States for a 2-year period of time and received 
a work permit. The Trump administration rightfully terminated this 
program in March of this year.
  But that was not the only misuse of parole. After the disastrous fall 
of Afghanistan and the bungled evacuation, the Biden administration 
added insult to injury. Under Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden 
administration rolled out the welcome mat to Afghan nationals. As of 
2023, the Biden administration had brought more than 70,000 Afghan 
nationals into the United States under this claimed parole authority. 
Again, parole is only supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis. But 
the Biden administration, by illegitimately exercising this authority, 
allowed 70,000 Afghan nationals into the country.
  What that also means--and in particular relevance to this crime 
committed against these two National Guardsmen--is that there was not 
the normal sort of vetting process that you would see for refugees or 
anybody else coming into the country. We knew very little about these 
individuals, and we didn't check up on them once they got here. We 
didn't know whether they were criminals, whether they had ties to 
radical terrorist groups or anything. Of course, that is pretty 
consistent with the Biden administration. Their open border policies 
for 4 years let basically anybody and everybody who wanted to come into 
the United States in, including people who were determined to commit 
crimes and do us harm.
  For some of these parolees, the U.S. Government under the Biden 
administration even allowed them to collect cash welfare benefits, such 
as Supplemental Security Income, SSI; Temporary Assistance for Needy 
Families,

[[Page S8467]]

TANF; and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. So not only did 
they come in unvetted and were allowed to stay here for 2 years, but 
they were given a work permit and given benefits that are paid for by 
you and me and the rest of the American taxpayers.
  A video on the DHS website with information for Afghan nationals 
details that U.S. Immigration and Citizenship Services will expedite 
asylum applications for those paroled under Operation Allies Welcome 
and that they may not even need to comply with the regular application 
filing deadline.
  A cursory review of this program on the website--the Operation Allies 
Welcome website--exposes that the Biden administration was much more 
concerned with testing these immigrants for COVID-19 than ensuring they 
would not otherwise pose a threat to the American people.
  The Department of Homeland Security inspector general reported that 
DHS paroled in at least two people who were known national security 
risks--known national security risks. And the Department of Defense 
inspector general wrote, in another report, that ``Afghan refugees were 
not vetted by the National Counterterrorism Center using all DOD data 
prior to arriving in'' the continental United States.
  Now, when I have learned about this abuse of parole authority within 
Operation Allies Welcome, I raised the alarm bell. In October of 2024, 
I co-led a letter, along with my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, 
to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, back in the Biden administration. 
In this letter, we pressed the administration for answers on how 
foreign extremists, such as one Afghan national, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 
who was arrested for his connection to an ISIS plot to commit a violent 
attack within the United States on election day--how people like that 
were slipping through the cracks in our immigration system. I guess the 
answer is there weren't cracks; there were yawning gaps that you could 
drive a truck through--that anybody and everybody who was determined to 
come here could abuse and commit acts of violence and harm against the 
American people.

  The Biden administration had claimed that Tawhedi, who had ties to 
ISIS, had a special immigrant visa, but that was not true. He never had 
been vetted for a special immigrant visa and was allowed into the 
country on parole. Here we go again.
  And throughout the criminal investigation, the Department of Homeland 
Security continued to say that ``no red flags were raised'' during the 
parole vetting process. Well, of course not--if the parole vetting 
process is virtually nonexistent, how do you expect red flags to be 
raised?
  The fact that a foreign national, who would later collaborate with 
ISIS on a terrorist plot within the United States, raised no red flags 
during DHS's parole vetting process tells us all we need to know about 
what that vetting process consisted of. It was obviously not 
sufficient. At minimum, it was insufficient to ensure that those 
entering the country did not pose a threat.
  The letter I referred to a moment ago also referenced the Office of 
Inspector General report that found that the Department of Homeland 
Security had no established process for monitoring the Afghan parolee 
population as their parole periods expired. In other words, they were 
allowed into the country, ostensibly, for a 2-year period of time, 
given a work permit, given social service benefits, and no followup to 
make sure that, after their parole period ended, they returned to their 
country of origin or pursued some other legitimate pathway to allow 
them to stay legally in the United States.
  Now, we sent this letter back in 2024 because of our concern that 
another foreign extremist might make their way into our country via 
this parole process and commit some act of violence. And it became 
increasingly clear, during Thanksgiving week, that our concerns were 
not unwarranted.
  A 29-year-old Afghan national entered our country through the Biden 
administration's abuse of parole authority under Operation Allies 
Welcome and murdered one of our National Guardsmen on duty.
  Last week, Attorney General Bondi, alongside Federal and State law 
enforcement, arrested another Afghan citizen residing in Fort Worth, 
TX, for threatening to build a bomb and carry out a suicide attack 
against Americans.
  There are many lessons to be learned from this sad experience, this 
sad episode. We simply cannot ignore the importance of thoroughly 
vetting for each and every person who enters our country to make sure 
that we are keeping out radicals who may want to harm Americans or 
criminals or other people who have no business being in the United 
States in the first place.
  These horrific incidents should be a reminder to all of us that the 
decisions that are made here in Washington have real life implications 
on the lives of the people that we represent. And, I must say, the 
Federal Government failed this young National Guardsman who lost her 
life during Thanksgiving week, and we don't know how many more 
potential threats are still out there because 70,000 Afghan nationals 
were paroled under this bogus Operation Allies Welcome program by the 
Biden administration. We don't know how many more potentially dangerous 
individuals are spread around the country.
  Last week, an American service woman lost her life because of the 
Biden administration's abuse of parole authority. President Biden is no 
longer in office, but the consequences of his reckless immigration 
policies are still with us. And I fear they will be with us not for 
days, not for weeks, not for months, but for years and possibly longer.
  I commend President Trump for freezing the processing of asylum and 
visa applications from Afghan nationals while we figure out what 
happened and figure out how to fix it. We have to get to the bottom of 
this in order to make sure that such a tragedy never happens again.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sheehy). The Senator from New Mexico.