WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) honored the heroism and sacrifice of two National Guard soldiers who were attacked last week in Washington, D.C., by an Afghan national who came into our country not through a Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) but through one of the Biden administration’s parole programs, which Sen. Cornyn opposed and raised alarm bells about last year after another Afghan national was arrested in connection with a plot to commit a violent attack on behalf of ISIS in the U.S. on Election Day. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.

“On Wednesday, two of our National Guard servicemembers stationed near the White House were shot in a targeted ambush.”  

“The perpetrator was an Afghan parolee – that has special significance – who entered the country under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program, which was notorious for insufficient vetting of Afghan refugees.”  

“I raised alarm bells about this mass parole of Afghan refugees back in 2024, when I co-led a letter to the Department of Homeland Security Mayorkas, pressing the Biden administration for their inadequate screening processes for Afghan refugees, including some who were later found to have had ties to ISIS.”

“This risk and the threat of these kind of deadly results was something that many of us were concerned about and raised with the Biden administration a long time before the tragic incidents of this Thanksgiving season.”

“Unfortunately, that prediction of this massive parole of 77,000 Afghans into the United States under the Biden administration’s Operation Allies Welcome program – that prediction proved to be true and come to pass.”

“Our prayers continue to go out to the family of Sarah Beckstrom, an American hero, who gave and made the ultimate sacrifice for her country, and we continue to pray for the full recovery of Andrew Wolfe.”

“I’m grateful to President Trump, to FBI Director Patel, for their swift response and for their commitment to bring the perpetrator of this heinous event to justice. But even more than that, we need to make sure that it does not reoccur through other paroled, poorly or insufficiently vetted Afghan parolees.”

“Unfortunately, this is part of the legacy of the Biden administration’s open borders and immigration policies.”