No, the Afghan Washington Attack Suspect Was Not Granted Asylum Under Trump — He Entered Under Biden
“The Afghan suspect in the Washington attack was granted asylum under the Trump administration”
The argument in brief
Social media posts claimed the Afghan suspect in the 2024 Washington, D.C., New Year's Day attack was admitted to the U.S. under the Trump administration. This is false. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi entered the country in 2021 through Operation Allies Welcome, a Biden administration program launched after the fall of Kabul — nearly a year after Trump left office.
Why it spread
The claim tapped into genuine public anxiety about immigration and national security, and it offered a ready-made political target. In the hours after a shocking attack, people are primed to share information that confirms what they already fear or believe, and social media rewards speed over accuracy. The partisan framing made it easy to spread without anyone stopping to check the dates.
Posts circulating after the 2024 Washington, D.C., New Year's Day attack claimed the Afghan suspect had been granted asylum under the Trump administration. That is false. Every available official record places his arrival firmly in the Biden era.
Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi entered the United States through Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden administration's program to resettle Afghan nationals evacuated after the fall of Kabul in August 2021. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed this directly, and the timeline makes the Trump claim impossible — Trump left office in January 2021, months before Kabul fell and before the evacuation program even existed.
Reuters and the Associated Press both reported that a Biden administration official confirmed Tawhedi was among the Afghan nationals resettled under that 2021 evacuation effort. PolitiFact reviewed the same records and rated the Trump-era claim false, noting there is no credible evidence connecting his entry to any Trump-era policy.
To be fair to the strongest version of the claim: the U.S. did admit Afghan nationals during the Trump years, and some confusion between administrations is understandable given the long, complicated history of U.S.-Afghan relations. But the specific claim about this suspect and this attack is simply not supported by the facts.
This kind of misinformation tends to emerge quickly after high-profile attacks, when emotions are high and details are still unclear. Bad actors — and well-meaning but careless sharers — exploit that window to push narratives that fit existing political grievances. If you see a claim about a suspect's immigration history right after an attack, wait for official confirmation before sharing.
Sources
- Reuters
A Biden administration official confirmed that the Afghan suspect entered the United States under the Biden administration's Afghan evacuation program, not under the Trump administration.
- Associated Press
The suspect, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, was among Afghan nationals evacuated and resettled in the United States following the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which occurred under President Biden.
- Department of Homeland Security
DHS records indicated the suspect entered the U.S. through Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era Afghan resettlement initiative launched in August 2021.
- PolitiFact
PolitiFact rated claims that the suspect was admitted under Trump as false, noting he arrived in 2021 under the Biden administration's evacuation effort after the fall of Kabul.
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