In August, 2021, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national who served with the U.S. military, was brought to the Kabul airport, the last remaining bastion of the U.S.’s 20-year-long occupation of Afghanistan. As the country collapsed, with the Taliban slowly strangling the Afghan capital and the country’s president fleeing, Mr. Lakanwal and his family joined thousands of soldiers like him who served foreign forces on cargo planes that were evacuated out of the country.
Just over four years later, Mr. Lakanwal drove across the country that he once served and had received asylum in, and allegedly shot two members of the U.S. national guard in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 26.
Little is known about his alleged motives, but this much is certain: anti-immigrant voices in the West are having a field day. President Donald Trump suspended all visas and asylum programs for Afghans, along with other nationalities considered “of concern,” and called the country “a hellhole on Earth.”
Afghan nationals are now being vilified. The Trump administration has frequently criticized the U.S.’s evacuation efforts, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden for not vetting those brought into the U.S. on the tight timelines agreed upon in the terms set by the first Trump administration.
But many Afghans’ service to the U.S. against the Taliban is being lost in the conversation. Of the nearly 123,000 people airlifted out of Kabul after the collapse of the Afghan government, 36,821 of the Afghan evacuees were applicants of the Special Immigration Visa (SIV), which is offered to those who served in or with the U.S. military. Many of the others were eligible for other immigration programs for their services to the war and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, which put them at direct risk of the Taliban’s persecution.
What’s more, a significant issue is being ignored: the mental health crisis among Afghan asylum seekers, particularly those involved in the war against the Taliban. Indeed, Mr. Lakanwal was reportedly suffering from apparent mental health issues. This is no coincidence.
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