Wednesday’s ambush of two National Guard members near the White House was a gut-punch to every American who trusts their government to keep our streets and symbols of freedom safe. One brave soldier, Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, was killed and another, Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, was left fighting for his life after a shocking attack that exposed gaps in our immigration and vetting systems. This was not merely a tragedy — it was a warning that the safety of our service members and citizens cannot be an afterthought.
Authorities say the suspect, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021 and had ties to CIA-supported units in Afghanistan — the sort of irregular, shadowy wartime partners whose vetting and records are notoriously opaque. He reportedly came to this country under Operation Allies Welcome after the chaotic withdrawal and was later granted asylum, a fact that has prompted fierce questions about how thoroughly certain arrivals were screened. If our nation is going to honor those who helped us, we must also ensure that every person admitted poses no threat to American lives.
The administration’s immediate response — pausing Afghan visa processing and halting asylum decisions — was the only credible first step given the stakes, and it exposed a stark truth: the Biden-era evacuation processes were rushed and bureaucratically broken. Intelligence officials and investigators are now wrestling with whether failures in parole and processing allowed someone dangerous to slip through into the interior of our country. Americans deserve a thorough review and not the usual media hand-wringing that reflexively defends the indefensible.
On Fox News’ The Story, Rep. Mike Lawler rightly insisted the Trump administration must “unwind” the catastrophic policies that left our borders and vetting protocols hollowed-out, and he’s right to demand concrete action rather than platitudes. For years conservatives warned that mass parole programs and lax enforcement invite chaos, and now those warnings have been vindicated in blood. It’s time for real, surgical rollback: restore rigorous vetting, reinstate meaningful oversight of parole and SIV adjudications, and put homeland security before partisan virtue signaling.
This is about more than politics — it’s about honoring the duty we owe our troops and the neighbors who send their sons and daughters into harm’s way. House Republicans and the Trump administration must move quickly to close loopholes, demand accountability from agencies that mishandled these programs, and fund the intelligence and border security tools necessary to keep dangerous actors out. Working Americans pay taxes for protection and order; they will not tolerate a system that treats them as collateral damage for bureaucratic incompetence.
Patriotism today means standing with the family of Specialist Beckstrom, praying for Staff Sgt. Wolfe, and refusing to accept a return to the negligence of the past four years. Congress should hold hearings, demand documents, and pass real reforms that prioritize American lives over open-border dogma. If Washington won’t act, voters will — and rightly so — because nothing is more conservative than protecting the safety and sovereignty of our nation.
