Barr’s backpedaling on Afghan refugees signals bigger problems | Opinion

When the U.S. withdrew troops from Afghanistan in 2021, Rep. Andy Barr spoke out in full-throated support for resettling Afghan refugees here. These were people who had served alongside U.S. troops, not only as interpreters, but as local security forces and intelligence assets. After the withdrawal, those people and their families immediately became targets of the Taliban forces that had overtaken the government. They were picked up, tortured, and often killed for the work they had done during the war.

“We have failed in our obligation to help many of these Afghans who risked their lives, and in many cases died, for the cause of their own country in assistance to the United States, and we owe it to them to help them get into our country with these visas,” Barr said in a KET interview at the time. He was critical of the way the withdrawal was carried out and the lack of support our government showed for those Afghans.

Now in the face of the horrific shootings in Washington, DC, of two members of the West Virginia National Guard, one of whom has died, congressional Republicans and the White House are calling for a re-examination of all those resettled Afghans. Decisions on all asylum cases have been halted. Visas for those traveling on Afghan passports are no longer being issued. Green cards that have been issued to people from Afghanistan and other countries on Trump’s travel ban list will have their status re-evaluated.

“Our forefathers built this nation on blood, sweat, and the unyielding love of freedom — not for foreign invaders to slaughter our heroes, suck dry our hard-earned tax dollars, or snatch the benefits owed to Americans,” Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, wrote in an X post. She seems unaware that there were very few people who fought in the American Revolution who were not immigrants (and those who were not immigrants did not fare well).

But now Barr is on the hot seat for his earlier support of resettlement. Those who are running against him in the Republican primary for Mitch McConnell’s Senate seat are wasting no time in criticizing his 2021 remarks. GOP Senate candidate Nate Morris took one of the first jabs: “I do believe our politicians owe it to the American citizens that they’re supposed to represent, to not flood our country with thousands of people from the Third World who don’t share our values and never will.”

In the face of such criticism, Barr is back-pedaling as fast as he can. “As I’ve said repeatedly, ‘If we can’t vet them, they don’t belong here,’” Barr said recently. And yet, the man charged with these shootings was vetted more than once. Rahmanullah Lakanwal was vetted by the FBI before he began working with U.S. troops. He went through extensive vetting when he came into the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome — including vetting by the National Counterterrorism Center, the FBI, and the Departments of Homeland Security and State. Finally, after another round of vetting by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, he was granted asylum in April 2025.

So, maybe the vetting is not the problem. Maybe we are asking the wrong questions, not in the vetting process but in our society. Why would an immigrant who had recently been granted asylum drive 3,000 miles to shoot National Guard troops? Why would a man who had served our country and his own commit such an atrocity? Maybe this is a random act of violence by a deranged man. I don’t know — and neither does Andy Barr. And yet he seems suddenly to be in lockstep with this administration’s attempt to get rid of people from countries it deems unsavory. The shooting and killing of members of the National Guard in Washington was a heinous act. But should all immigrants from countries deemed “third world” or as Trump said, “s—t hole countries,” pay the price?

Kate Reilly Brinkley is a member of Gathering for Democracy, a cross-partisan group of concerned citizens of the Bluegrass.