OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:45 PM – Friday, December 12, 2025
During a congressional hearing on worldwide threats, National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) Director Joe Kent testified that his agency has identified approximately 18,000 “known and suspected terrorists” who entered the United States under the Biden administration from 2021 to 2025.
Kent, a Trump appointee and former Army Special Forces officer, described these individuals as posing the most significant current terrorism threat to the U.S. homeland.
He told the House Homeland Security Committee on December 11th that these individuals have ties to jihadist groups, such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, and they would typically be barred from entry under standard vetting procedures. However, the Biden administration fell short.
During the House committee hearing, Kent slammed the Biden administration for allowing individuals on the FBI’s terror watch list due to the administration’s loose border policies and the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“So far, NCTC has identified around 18,000 known and suspected terrorists that the Biden administration let come into our country,” Kent stated.
Advertisement“We’ve identified 2,000 of that group … who have ties to terrorist organizations,” he continued. “That is probably the top terrorist threat that we face right now. And that doesn’t include the individuals who came here illegally through the open border. That number alarmingly remains unknown at this time.”
Kent also blamed the Biden administration for creating the conditions that enabled the recent shooting of two National Guard members just before Thanksgiving, carried out by 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, who entered the United States in 2021 under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome.
“The Biden administration not only let them into the country and, in many cases, facilitated their entry into the country, just like the entry of the Afghan terrorists who committed the terrorist attack here just before Thanksgiving, killing one of our National Guard members and wounding another.”
Lakanwal previously worked with the CIA as a partner force in Afghanistan, carrying out covert night raids and counterterrorism missions against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda before the U.S. withdrawal in 2021.
He went on to note that although Lakanwal was approved to work with the United States in Afghanistan, he was allowed to live in America without ever undergoing proper vetting.
“These individuals, despite what has been reported, were not vetted properly to come into the United States,” Kent stated. “The individual terrorist who committed the attack in D.C., he was vetted to serve as a soldier in Afghanistan.”
“The Biden administration essentially used his tactical level vetting as a ruse to bring him here and to bring him into our communities.”
Following the 2021 withdrawal, approximately 200,000 Afghans were brought to the United States, with around 76,000 arriving during the initial airlift under humanitarian parole.
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