Two members of the West Virginia National Guard were ambushed and shot near Farragut West, just blocks from the White House, in a brazen attack that left both soldiers critically wounded and one later dead. The scene exposes how vulnerable even uniformed service members are on our capital’s streets when hostile actors slip past our immigration and vetting systems.
Authorities have identified the suspect as an Afghan national who had worked with CIA-backed units in Afghanistan and entered the United States under Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, later obtaining asylum. That affiliation and his path into the country raise urgent questions about how candidates for resettlement are screened and why intelligence ties weren’t flagged before this individual was allowed to live among us.
President Trump was blunt in calling the shooting an act of terror and immediately ordered additional National Guard troops to the capital while halting Afghan immigration processing pending review. Conservative Americans should not be ashamed to insist that national security comes before open-door immigration experiments, and this administration’s rapid response to tighten vetting is the right instinct.
This tragedy underscores a policy failure that has been brewing for years: generous parole programs and rushed resettlements can let dangerous individuals into the country without the scrutiny our servicemembers and citizens deserve. Congress and the executive branch must close loopholes that allow asylum and parole to bypass thorough biometric and intelligence checks, and they must reverse the reflexive political defense of any policy that jeopardizes public safety.
It’s particularly galling that legal fights over the National Guard’s presence in D.C. came just days before this attack, with a federal judge temporarily blocking deployments some advocates called unlawful. Liberty and security are not mutually exclusive, and those who cheer limits on troop movements while demanding tighter public safety should explain how they would keep the capital safe without boots on the ground.
As the FBI investigates this as a potential act of terrorism, patriotic Americans must stand with the families of the fallen and demand accountability from officials who greenlit policies that increased our exposure to risk. This is not a moment for soft-headed excuses or performative sympathy; it is a call to action to secure our borders, reform vetting, and prioritize American lives above political virtue signaling.
