WASHINGTON: US authorities have arrested an Afghan national for links with the Daesh – Islamic State of Iraq and Syria–Khorasan (ISIS-K) and its Afghanistan branch.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the arrest days after a shooting outside the White House in which an Afghan national wounded two National Guard members.
ICE Homeland Security Investigations agents detained Jaan Shah Safi in Waynesboro, Virginia. Officials say Safi entered the United States under President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome programme. According to DHS, he provided material support to ISIS-K and supplied weapons to his father, a militia commander in Afghanistan.
Safi arrived in the US on September 8, 2021, in Philadelphia. He later applied for Temporary Protected Status, but his case was closed after Secretary Noem ended TPS for Afghans. ICE arrested him on December 3, 2025, under the Trump administration.
Secretary Noem said Safi was brought into the country through an “unvetted” refugee programme. She said the arrest took place only miles from where National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe were shot last week by another Afghan man admitted under the same programme.
Noem accused the Biden administration of creating a major national-security crisis by allowing nearly 190,000 Afghans into the country without full vetting. She said President Trump halted Afghan refugee resettlement and suspended Afghan entry upon taking office on January 20.
This is the third arrest of an Afghan national accused of terrorism in the US within a week.
On November 26, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, also admitted under Operation Allies Welcome, carried out an ambush attack on two National Guard members near the White House.
Also Read: US Suspends Afghan Immigration Applications After White House Shooting
On November 25, authorities in Texas arrested Mohammad Dawood Alokozay, another Afghan admitted under the same programme, for making bomb threats. He allegedly posted a TikTok video showing himself assembling an explosive device and threatening a target in the Fort Worth area.
