Kristi Noem stammered when confronted on air Sunday with the fact that the suspected National Guard shooter’s asylum request was approved under the Trump administration.
The Homeland Security secretary, dubbed “ICE Barbie” over her penchant for cosplaying as an immigration official, deflected when asked on NBC’s Meet the Press whether the Trump administration vetted Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, before approving his request for asylum from Afghanistan earlier this year.
“Vetting is… Vetting is…Vetting is happening when they come into the country, and that was completely abandoned under Joe Biden’s administration,” Noem said.
Lakanwal is accused of firing on two members of the National Guard near the White House on Wednesday. One of the victims, 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom, has since died of her injuries.
Widely reported to have worked as part of a CIA-backed unit during the war in Afghanistan, the 29-year-old arrived in the U.S. after the embattled Central Asian country fell to the Taliban in 2021. But his asylum application was granted earlier in April, three months after Donald Trump assumed the presidency for the second time.
Noem, who has hired a 22-year-old former landscaper to head up U.S. terror prevention efforts, has repeatedly claimed the Joe Biden administration is wholly to blame for this week’s tragic shooting near the White House.
In a different appearance on ABC News Sunday, she said Lakanwal may have been radicalized after arriving in the U.S. under a scheme established by the former Democratic president.
“He was brought into the country by the Biden administration through Operation Allies Welcome. And then, maybe vetted after that, but not done well, based on what the guidelines were put forward by President Biden,” she said. “And now, since he’s been here, we believe he could have been radicalized in his home community and in his home state.”
ABC News host Jonathan Karl was quick to bring Noem up on this point. “President Trump had already been in office for several months, you had been in office,” he said. “Are you saying there was no vetting done by the Trump administration? You were simply relying on what had been done under the Biden administration? No vetting before granting him asylum?”
Noem did not contest that assessment, but insisted vetting processes “under Joe Biden” have since been “completely fixed.”
The secretary has previously come under fire for hiring Thomas Fugate, 22-year-old former gardner and grocery store assistant, to head up the Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships.
While Noem has blamed Biden for Lakanwal’s presence in the United States, users on social media have been equally swift to point to Fugate’s appointment as a possible vulnerability in the nation’s defenses.
“Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was vetted & granted LEGAL ASYLUM by TRUMP ADMINISTRATION in April 2025,” one person wrote. “I guess 22 year old landscaper/grocery store clerk. Thomas Fugate overseeing preventing domestic terrorism and targeted violence – isn’t doing such a great job.”
“I had to look up his name because I had forgotten it,” another person added. “Nut maybe, just maybe, 22-year-old Thomas Fugate needs to be replaced with someone who actually has experience in counterterrorism.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to DHS for comment on this story.
The post ICE Barbie Short-Circuits When Confronted on Trump Granting D.C. Shooting Suspect Asylum appeared first on The Daily Beast.
