{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-blasts-biden-parole-programs-for-letting-terrorists-into-u-s-commends-trump-for-freezing-afghan-asylum-visa-applications/", "Cornyn Blasts Biden Parole Programs for Letting Terrorists into U.S., Commends Trump for Freezing Afghan Asylum, Visa Applications", "2025-12-03", "2025", "2025-12", "Republican", "Senate", "TX", "John Cornyn", "C001056", "www.cornyn.senate.gov", "cornyn", "https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) detailed the abject failures of the Biden administration\u2019s parole programs, including Operation Allies Welcome, which allowed an Afghan citizen living in Fort Worth, Texas, who was recently charged by the U.S. Department of Justice for threatening to kill Americans as well as the shooter in last week\u2019s ambush on two National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., into the country. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn\u2019s remarks are below, and video can be found here.\n\n\u201cThe man who committed this crime was a 29-year-old Afghan national by the name of Rahmanullah Lakanwal. The Biden administration paroled him into the United States in 2021, as part of Operation Allies Welcome. He was not the recipient of any Special Immigrant Visa.\u201d\n\n\u201cParole is a provision under the United States law that allows the Secretary of Homeland Security to allow certain aliens \u2013 and that would be foreigners \u2013 on a case-by-case basis.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis shooter was not admitted to the United States as a result of any legislation that Congress passed or any of us voted for. It was solely done by the Biden administration and by the Department of Homeland Security, during his administration.\u201d\n\n\u201cThese sort of categorical paroles that the Biden administration issued, including the parole which resulted in this shooter being in Washington, D.C., and attacking these two National Guard members, was illegitimate.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow, what I\u2019ve learned about this abuse of parole authority within Operation Allies Welcome, I raised the alarm bell. In October 2024, I co-led a letter, along with my colleagues on the Judiciary Committee, to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, back in the Biden administration.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe sent this letter back in 2024 because of our concern that another foreign extremist might make their way into our country via this parole process and commit some act of violence, and it became increasingly clear during Thanksgiving week that our concerns were not unwarranted.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe simply cannot ignore the importance of thoroughly vetting for each and every person who enters our country to make sure we\u2019re keeping out radicals who may want to harm Americans, or criminals, or other people who have no business being in the United States in the first place.\u201d\n\n\u201cI commend President Trump for freezing processing of asylum and visa applications from Afghan nationals while we figure out what happened and figure out how to fix it.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe have to get to the bottom of this in order to make sure that such a tragedy never happens again.\u201d", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:09:11Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.cornyn.senate.gov/news/cornyn-blasts-biden-parole-programs-for-letting-terrorists-into-u-s-commends-trump-for-freezing-afghan-asylum-visa-applications/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.3609500601887703, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}