Rahmanullah Lakanwal: One of 200,000 Afghans Brought Here Since 2021
How did ‘Operation Allies Welcome’ work, and how did he benefit?
By Nayla Rush on December 5, 2025
Summary
The Biden–Harris administration evacuated approximately 80,000 Afghans during the summer of 2021 as U.S. forces withdrew from Afghanistan. Rahmanullah Lakanwal was among them. The administration did not stop there: it continued to create additional pathways for Afghans to enter the United States – ultimately bringing in more than 200,000 individuals. These arrivals were provided federal benefits, health insurance, work authorization, Social Security numbers, English-language instruction, mental-health support, and more. The associated costs reached into the billions of dollars, borne by American taxpayers.
Contrary to popular narratives, most Afghans admitted during and after the evacuation had nothing to do with the U.S. government or any of its contractors. They were not U.S. “allies,” nor were they “persecuted” individuals in need of refugee resettlement. Lacking immigrant visas, they were granted “parole”, a temporary permission to enter and remain in the United States. Once here, the Biden-Harris administration contracted resettlement agencies not only to provide the standard Reception and Placement (R&P) assistance – normally limited to refugees – but also to help Afghan parolees pursue long-term immigration pathways, including adjustment of status through qualifying family relationships, Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications, or asylum claims.
This raises a fundamental question: Why did the prior administration choose to open the door (and keep it wide open) to hundreds of thousands of Afghans who were not at risk, despite the clear limitations of our vetting capacity of these individuals? And how many more Rahmanullah Lakanwals are there, time-bombs waiting to turn against the country that welcomed them?
https://cis.org/Rush/Rahmanullah-Lakanwal-One-200000-Afghans-Brought-Here-2021
