A second Afghan national brought to the United States under Operation Allies Welcome was arrested on Saturday, only days after a separate case of a shooting in Washington DC.
This latest arrest involves a man accused of posting a TikTok video that appeared to show him constructing a bomb and naming the Fort Worth area in Texas as his target, according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
According to Fox News, Mohammad Dawood Alokozay was taken into custody. Court records show he has been charged at the state level with making a terroristic threat.
DHS confirmed that Alokozay entered the country through Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era resettlement effort launched after the US military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, when the Taliban took over. Alokozay was admitted on September 7, 2022, as a lawful permanent resident. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now issued a detainer following his arrest.
Texas authorities worked with the FBI in a Joint Terrorism Task Force and detained Alokozay on Tuesday.
Arrest of Rahmanullah Lakanwal in DC shooting
His arrest came only one day before a separate shooting in Washington DC involving another Afghan named Rahmanullah Lakanwal.
Lakanwal is accused of shooting two National Guard soldiers near the White House, in which one died, and one remains in critical condition. Lakanwal also arrived in the US under Operation Allies Welcome. He lived in Washington state and, according to a Trump administration official, applied for asylum in December last year and received approval in April. Investigators said he had no known criminal history before the attack.
Later, CIA Director John Ratcliffe confirmed that the Lakanwal had previously worked “with the US Government, including CIA, as a member of a partner force in Kandahar.”
These back-to-back incidents have raised questions about the Operation Allies Welcome.
A report from the DHS Inspector General last year found serious data errors in the Biden-era programme, saying some arrivals were issued multiple identification numbers or had names recorded incorrectly. The review warned that such problems made it harder to track “biographic or criminal history data” and said DHS did not have a clear system to monitor when parole for evacuees expired.
In the aftermath of the DC shooting, President Trump said his administration would “re-examine” all Afghans who entered the country during Biden’s presidency. The MAGA chief said the attack exposed “lax migration policies” and announced a sweeping freeze on immigration: all immigration requests from Afghan nationals have been suspended indefinitely. The US has also paused issuing visas to individuals travelling on Afghan passports.
The POTUS also ordered a sweeping pause on immigration from “Third World countries,” a category that includes several nations in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. This aligns with his hardline stance on foreigners, supported by his MAGA base.
Earlier this month, Trump also signalled a softening stance on H1-B visas.
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