Was the dc shooter granted asylum under what president
Executive summary
Multiple major news outlets report that the alleged D.C. shooter, identified as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, applied for asylum in late 2024 and was granted asylum in April 2025 — which places the approval during President Donald Trump’s term and not the Biden administration (see Reuters, CNN, The New York Times) [1] [2] [3]. Reporting also shows competing political narratives: Republican officials blame “Biden-era vetting,” while outlets and government files tie the formal asylum approval to April 2025 under the Trump administration [4] [1].
1. What the documents and multiple outlets say: asylum granted in April 2025 under Trump
Law enforcement and government files reviewed or cited by Reuters, CNN and The New York Times indicate Lakanwal applied for asylum in December 2024 and that U.S. authorities approved that application on April 23, 2025 — three months after Donald Trump returned to the White House — meaning the asylum grant occurred during the Trump administration [1] [2] [3]. Reporting by Reuters summarized the timeline clearly and was repeated by other outlets, which stated that the approval date fell in April 2025 [1] [4].
2. Why political leaders disputed or reframed the timeline
Following the shooting, some Republican leaders and Trump himself initially blamed “Biden-era” vetting failures for the individual’s presence in the U.S.; that political argument focused on the 2021 evacuations under Operation Allies Welcome and the parole program that brought many Afghans to the U.S., which began under the Biden administration [1] [5]. But multiple outlets noted the formal asylum decision approving Lakanwal occurred in April 2025, and several news organizations quoted officials who explicitly said the asylum grant was under the Trump administration [2] [4].
3. The distinction between parole/entry and later asylum approval
Reporting highlights a technical but politically salient distinction: many Afghans evacuated in 2021 entered under Operation Allies Welcome on two‑year parole — a process linked to the Biden-era evacuation — which allowed legal residence pending later status changes; some of those individuals later filed asylum applications, which are decided separately and can be granted under a subsequent administration [5] [6]. Sources say Lakanwal entered in 2021 under that program and then applied for asylum in 2024; the application’s approval in April 2025 was an administrative act that occurred during Trump’s presidency [5] [6].
4. How media verified the asylum claim and where they sourced it
Major outlets — Reuters, CNN, The New York Times, The Guardian, ABC and others — reported the asylum was granted in April 2025, citing U.S. government files and multiple law enforcement officials with knowledge of the case [4] [2] [3] [7] [8]. Snopes and fact-check summaries documented the claim’s circulation online and confirmed that mainstream reporting consistently identified April 2025 as the approval date [9].
5. Competing interpretations and political uses of the timeline
News coverage shows two competing narratives: one emphasizes the 2021 evacuation and initial parole (used by critics of Biden-era policy to argue the administration facilitated entry), the other stresses that the asylum decision itself was an action of the Trump administration — a point used by the Trump White House and allies to defend or reframe responsibility for vetting failures [1] [4] [10]. Reporters noted both the factual timeline and how each side used different parts of that timeline to advance policy and political goals [5] [11].
6. Limits of available reporting and remaining unknowns
Available sources do not provide the full adjudicative record, internal agency deliberations, or the detailed vetting steps taken on this individual prior to the asylum grant; those documents are not published in the cited reporting [1] [2] [3]. Officials have said vetting and review processes are under further scrutiny, and some agencies announced pauses or reviews of related immigration actions after the shooting, but the precise factual sequence of background checks and assessments leading to the April 2025 approval is not fully laid out in current articles [12] [10].
7. Bottom line for the original query
The asylum approval for the alleged D.C. shooter is reported by multiple major outlets and government files as having been granted in April 2025, which places that administrative decision in President Donald Trump’s administration [1] [2] [4]. At the same time, the individual’s initial entry to the United States was under the 2021 Operation Allies Welcome parole program, a Biden‑era evacuation measure — a fact that different actors have emphasized selectively for political effect [5] [6].