A suspected terrorist tied to ISIS-K has been nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) right here on American soil, courtesy of a resettlement program that’s raising serious eyebrows.
Breitbart reported that this arrest of Jaan Shah Safi, an Afghan national, in Waynesboro, Virginia, on Wednesday, shines a glaring spotlight on the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome, a program that resettled tens of thousands of Afghans with what critics call dangerously lax vetting.
Safi first set foot in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, arriving in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as part of this resettlement effort.
ICE officials have confirmed that Safi allegedly provided support to both the Islamic State of Iraq and the notorious ISIS-K, a group known for its ruthless extremism.
Adding to the alarm, reports indicate Safi supplied weapons to his father, a militia commander in Afghanistan, painting a troubling picture of his connections before arriving stateside.
After entering the U.S., Safi applied for Temporary Protected Status (TPS), but that lifeline was cut short when DHS Secretary Kristi Noem terminated TPS for Afghans, leaving him classified as an unauthorized migrant.
Speaking on the arrest, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem didn’t hold back, stating, “Today, our heroic ICE officers arrested Jaan Shah Safi, a terrorist who provided material support to ISIS-K.”
Her words cut to the core of a broader concern: how did someone with such alleged ties slip through the cracks of a program meant to offer refuge, not risk?
Noem further criticized the resettlement operation, saying, “The Biden administration brought this terrorist into the U.S. under the disastrous Operation Allies Welcome program.”
She pointed out that Safi’s arrest occurred not far from Washington, D.C., where another Afghan resettled through the same program, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, allegedly ambushed and shot two National Guardsmen last month.
Tragically, Sarah Beckstrom succumbed to her injuries, while Andrew Wolfe remains in serious condition, a stark reminder of the potential consequences of inadequate screening.
Adding fuel to the fire, yet another Afghan national, Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, resettled under the same initiative, was arrested on Nov. 25 in Fort Worth, Texas, after allegedly posting a video on TikTok hinting at plans for a terrorist attack in the area.
These incidents, taken together, paint a damning portrait of a policy that, while perhaps well-intentioned, has left gaping holes in national security, according to critics like Noem who argue for a complete overhaul.
With nearly 190,000 Afghan nationals admitted under Operation Allies Welcome, as Noem noted, the scale of unvetted entries is staggering—identities and intentions often verified only after they’ve already settled in American communities.
It’s a sobering wake-up call: good intentions must be matched with ironclad safeguards, or the price paid could be far too high for our nation to bear.
