Alarming Revelation: 18,000 Known or Suspected Terrorists Entered U.S. Under Biden Policies
In a stark congressional testimony that underscores the Trump administration’s urgent border security push, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent revealed Thursday that U.S. intelligence has identified approximately 18,000 known or suspected terrorists who gained entry during the Biden era—representing what Kent called a “persistent” and top-tier threat to the homeland.
Speaking before the House Homeland Security Committee during its annual worldwide threats hearing, Kent emphasized that this figure—drawn from exhaustive NCTC analysis—excludes an unknown number of potential threats who slipped across the southern border undetected amid what he described as four years of lax enforcement.
Kent, a decorated Army veteran and CIA paramilitary officer confirmed by the Senate in July 2025 to lead the NCTC, framed the influx as a direct consequence of policy failures that bypassed standard safeguards.
“The No. 1 threat that we have right now in my view is the fact that we don’t know who came into our country in the last four years of Biden’s open borders,” he told lawmakers, noting that these individuals—known in D.C. parlance as KSTs (known or suspected terrorists)—would have been barred under rigorous pre-Biden vetting protocols. Of the 18,000, roughly 2,000 arrived via the chaotic 2021 Afghan airlift under Operation Allies Welcome, which evacuated over 80,000 people from Kabul with abbreviated screenings amid the U.S. withdrawal—highlighting vulnerabilities that Kent said persist today.
Afghan Airlift Legacy: From Ally to Attacker in the D.C. Shooting
Kent’s warnings landed with fresh urgency, spotlighting the November 26, 2025, ambush near the White House that claimed the life of 20-year-old National Guardsman Sarah Beckstrom and left 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe critically wounded. The suspect, 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was admitted in September 2021 as part of the same airlift program after years of service in a CIA-backed “Zero Unit”—an elite Afghan counterterrorism squad known for high-risk raids against Taliban targets.
Lakanwal, a Pashtun from Khost Province who resettled in Bellingham, Washington, with his wife and five children, allegedly drove cross-country to carry out the targeted attack using a .357 revolver, firing on the West Virginia National Guard members patrolling near Farragut Square.
Despite his prior collaboration with U.S. forces—which included tactical vetting for Afghan military service—Kent accused the Biden team of using that limited clearance “as a ruse to bring him here,” skipping the full biometric and biographic checks required for stateside entry.
Lakanwal, who received asylum approval this year under streamlined Trump-era processes for Afghan allies, had no prior criminal record but faced mounting personal strains, including financial woes, cultural isolation, and possible untreated PTSD from his paramilitary days—issues flagged in emails from refugee volunteers as early as 2023. He remains hospitalized after being wounded in the exchange, facing first-degree m*rder and weapons charges from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro.
The incident, probed as a potential terrorism case by the FBI under Director Kash Patel, has prompted President Trump to order an indefinite halt to new Afghan immigration processing and a sweeping audit of Biden-era asylum and green card approvals for nationals from 19 high-risk countries.
Tense Exchanges and Deportation Defenses: Noem Faces Democratic Fire
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, sworn in by Justice Clarence Thomas in January 2025 after a bipartisan 59-34 Senate confirmation, stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Kent in defending the administration’s aggressive countermeasures.
Noem, the former South Dakota governor who has overseen over 168,000 arrests and deportations in her first 11 months—including more than 600 Tren de Aragua gang members—pegged total Biden-era migrant arrivals at 15 to 20 million, far outstripping lower estimates of those who embedded in communities.
She vowed to deploy “every tool and authority” to shield Americans ahead of high-profile 2026 events like the World Cup and the nation’s 250th anniversary celebrations, tying the terror risks directly to unchecked inflows.
The hearing devolved into partisan clashes, with Democrats like Ranking Member Bennie Thompson pressing Noem on Lakanwal’s asylum grant—finalized under Trump but rooted in Biden rules—and dubbing the Guardsmen’s ambush an “unfortunate accident.”
“You think that was an unfortunate accident?” Noem shot back.
“He shot our Guardsmen in the head.” Thompson countered by pinning blame solely on Biden, while Rep. Seth Magaziner highlighted cases like self-deported Army veteran Sae Joon Park—a Korean War-era enlistee with drug convictions tied to untreated PTSD—accusing Noem of failing to distinguish “good guys from bad guys.” Noem pledged a case review but insisted the system demands “integrity” to prioritize citizens.
Tensions peaked when Noem departed around noon for a purported 1 p.m. FEMA meeting—later reported canceled—prompting Thompson to push a subpoena for her compelled return. The motion fell on a razor-thin 13-12 party-line vote, leaving Republicans to decry Democratic “grandstanding” as a distraction from the real dangers exposed by Kent’s disclosures.
Amid the uproar, the Trump team’s focus remains laser-sharp: reversing Biden’s vulnerabilities through enhanced vetting, rapid deportations, and interagency hunts for the 18,000—ensuring, as Kent put it, that local law enforcement has the intel to “hunt terrorist threats and safeguard our people.”
