Timeline and Personnel Breakdown
Lakanwal entered the U.S. on September 8, 2021, via OAW humanitarian parole after working with U.S. forces (including CIA partner units in Kandahar since ~2011). He had an active Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) application but was paroled under OAW due to the chaotic evacuation.
| Phase | Date | Key Actions | Personnel Involved | Appointed By / Holdover? |
|---|
| Initial Vetting & Entry | 2021 (pre-arrival & upon entry) | Biometric (fingerprints, iris) & biographic checks; CIA background for prior work; no disqualifiers found. Handled via OAW at transit sites (e.g., Qatar) and U.S. ports. | DHS (CBP/USCIS line officers), DoD, FBI, NCTC analysts (~400 total personnel). | Biden appointees/holdovers: OAW launched Sept. 2021 under Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas; staff hired/retained from Obama/Trump eras but operating Biden's expedited policy. No Trump influence (he left office Jan. 2021). |
| Ongoing/Annual Re-Vetting | 2021–2025 | Continuous database checks (e.g., post-2024 Oklahoma plot); still "clean" per DHS. | Same interagency teams, primarily DHS/USCIS. | Biden holdovers: Policy continuity; minimal turnover until 2025 transition. |
| Asylum Grant | April 2025 | Reviewed parole status for permanent protection; approved based on persecution risk and prior vetting. | USCIS asylum officers/adjudicators. | Mostly Biden holdovers: Trump's DHS appointees (e.g., Noem confirmed Jan. 25) oversaw high-level policy, but frontline USCIS staff (thousands) were career civil servants or recent Biden hires. No full purge; acting officials handled April cases under Trump's emerging reviews. |
It takes time to completely take over a department, and USCIS asylum officers/adjudicators were not fired by DOGE, etc. Those people were either lifetime employees or hired by the Biden Administration. While the final grant came after he took office, there was no large turnover in that department, these were not "Trump Employees"... The vetting took place under Biden, and his hires gave the final nod for his Asylum.