Local Afghans wary, ‘in shock’ amid Trump crackdown after National Guard shooting

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One man was a translator for the U.S. Marines. One woman was a nurse, later targeted by the Taliban as she and her family tried to escape. Another woman left the country decades ago as a young teen. 

After escaping war and violence in Afghanistan, they said they now feared their lives in San Diego could be turned upside down after authorities identified the alleged shooter in the National Guard attack in Washington D.C. last month as an Afghan man. In response, the Trump administration ordered sweeping immigration restrictions for immigrants from Afghanistan and beyond. 

Days later, about two dozen community members gathered in a local restaurant to discuss what the fallout could mean for one of California’s largest Afghan populations. San Diego County has long been home to Afghan refugees, with 4,000 Afghans arriving just in the years since U.S. troops began their withdrawal from the country.

Among the questions swirling the room: Who is most at risk? Should we avoid posting on social media? Is anyone taking action against this? 

The shooting on the eve of Thanksgiving killed 20-year-old U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom and left 24-year-old Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe in critical condition. In its wake, the administration has blamed former President Joe Biden for poor vetting during the Afghan evacuation and claimed recently arrived immigrants include “countless unvetted criminals.”

“The Trump Administration has been taking every measure possible – in the face of unrelenting Democrat opposition – to get these monsters out of our country and clean up the mess made by the Biden Administration,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, in a statement.

A now archived Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, webpage said that the Afghans underwent a “rigorous vetting and screening process” that involved multiple law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

The latest restrictions include a freeze on visas for Afghans and immigration applications for Afghans and citizens of 18 other countries, along with asylum decisions for all applicants. The administration also said it would review those granted refugee status under the Biden administration, possibly affecting up to 200,000 people who were already approved to remain in the U.S. 

Confusion, fear and disappointment have gripped Afghans in San Diego, and community advocates have said the new threats are already taking hold. 

“Everyone’s on their toes,” said Zia Nooristani, who owns the Afghan Food Market in El Cajon and came to the U.S. from Afghanistan at 5 years old. Customers come in scared, asking if Nooristani knows what will happen. 

Nooristani said he was upset by the news of the shooting last month. “Two people (suffered) for no reason,” he said. 

Some Afghans fled their country fearing the Taliban, many after aiding the U.S. during its occupation – and now they say they risk being sent back by the government that promised them safety for allyship in America’s longest war. 

Rahmat, who asked to be identified by only his first name because he fears retaliation from the U.S. government, told inewsource he fought in Afghanistan alongside Marines and defense contractors for four years. He said he celebrated Thanksgiving and Christmas before ever arriving in the U.S. 

“We stayed in the same camps. We stayed in the same barracks. We eat in the same chow hall,” Rahmat said. He gained U.S. citizenship three years ago, but as an advocate for the community, he worries that speaking out could lead to retaliation. 

Still, he said Afghans are grateful to be in the U.S. and in San Diego. “They just made this city their home,” Rahmat said. 

The woman who was a nurse in Afghanistan requested that inewsource not publish her name citing the same fear. She said she managed to arrive in the U.S. with her family in 2021, and the Americans receiving her were generous. She hopes her 7-year-old daughter, now attending school and learning English, will have a brighter future in the U.S.

Speaking through tears, the woman said she fears being sent back. “If the Taliban knows we live in Afghanistan they will try to kill us,” the woman said. 

More than 190,000 Afghans arrived in the U.S. after the chaotic American exit from the country which concluded in 2021. One of the programs started by the Biden administration to facilitate Afghan arrivals, Operation Allies Welcome, has come under criticism by the administration after authorities revealed that the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, entered the U.S. through that program. 

Lakanwal’s asylum application was approved earlier this year during the Trump administration, according to news reports. He has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the shooting.

Before arriving in the U.S., Lakanwal worked in the CIA-backed “Zero Unit” in the war, an intelligence and paramilitary force made up of Afghan nationals. The U.S. considered the units among “the most trusted domestic forces” in Afghanistan, though human rights groups called them “death squads” for their alleged brutality, according to CBS News. 

According to a government webpage, the Operation Allies Welcome involved “biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals” from DHS, the FBI and National Counterterrorism Center. 

But the program had been under some scrutiny even before the shooting, including from government reports. An Office of Inspector General report from 2022 found some information used to vet applicants was inaccurate or missing. It was also found that about 1,300 Afghans were admitted to the U.S. without proper vetting, though officials later accounted for the proper vetting for most of those people, according to the report. 

Another report focusing on the FBI’s role in vetting evacuees found that 55 Afghans on a terrorism watchlist were let into the U.S., though 46 of them were later removed from the watch list after the FBI determined they were no longer considered a threat. The report overall endorsed the FBI’s work to identify those people and share information with other agencies.

Immigration advocates say most Afghans underwent intense scrutiny and sometimes years of vetting to be able to enter and remain in the U.S. The changes in immigration policies seem harsh and unnecessary, they say.

“This is punishing our allies and undermining any future cooperations with any country for that matter,” said Tazheen Nizam, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, in San Diego.

Nizam also fears how the administration’s targeting could send panic throughout the community: kids staying home from school or people afraid to report crime to police. 

The Afghan community in San Diego in some ways is also reckoning with how to address the D.C. shooting, which happened just blocks from the White House, in their own community. At the gathering last week, community members condemned the shooter’s brazen violence and said it was not representative of their community. 

But they also pointed to what they view as the unfairness of the Trump administration’s reaction. One man asked, “how one individual can define the entire community? The actions of one individual?” 

Recent reporting has revealed that Lakanwal may have been suffering from mental health issues in the years leading up to the shooting. A community volunteer had reached out to a refugee resettlement group expressing concerns about Lakanwal’s deterioration earlier this year and saying he needed help, according to news reports. 

Shawn VanDiver, the founder of the charity AfghanEvac, who organized the meeting last week, said the administration’s focus should be on taking better care of veterans and wartime allies, instead of “punishing all Afghans.”

VanDiver said many Afghans voted for Trump in the most recent election. Friba Shokoor, a U.S. citizen who came here from Afghanistan 45 years ago, is one of them. She said she respects the president, but his administration’s targeting of her community is a “nightmare,” she said. 

“I don’t believe it. I don’t understand it. I’m in shock.”

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