While Joe Biden is no longer in office, the fallout from his Afghanistan failure continues to endanger the United States and the world. President Donald Trump has taken decisive action to address that threat, even as liberals denounce his efforts.

According to a recent report published by Etilaatroz, a respected Afghan newspaper that moved its offices to Washington, D.C. following the United States’ chaotic withdrawal in 2021, more than 17,000 jihadi schools have opened in the country over the past four years, enrolling some 330,000 students. The Taliban have financed this project – effectively a nationwide brainwashing campaign – with foreign aid, including funds from the World Food Program and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

Mohammed Mohaq, a religious scholar who served as a member of the curriculum board of the Afghan Ministry of Education from 2006-2007 when the government was under U.S. rule, has warned that the Taliban is aiming to transform Afghanistan into an “ideological military garrison.” He specifically noted that Taliban schools are training mullahs and military fighters to threaten neighboring countries and wage a global jihad.

While this development has created cause for concern throughout the West, it has also highlighted the threat from Afghan jihadists who have already infiltrated the United States and much of Western Europe. As the United States and its allies accepted refugees who legitimately feared for their lives with the Taliban back in charge, lax vetting procedures allowed extremists to slip in amongst the evacuees.

Last October, for instance, the FBI announced the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan national residing in Oklahoma City who had reportedly obtained firearms and ammunition with the intention of conducting a terrorist attack on Election Day in the name of ISIS. Tawhedi entered the United States in September 2021 as a supposed “refugee.”

In Germany earlier this year, another Afghan asylum-seeker stabbed and killed two people in a public park, including a two-year-old child. Just weeks later, another Afghan asylum-seeker rammed his car into a crowd of people in an apparent terror attack, wounding 30. Last year in France, yet another Afghan refugee stabbed a 15-year-old boy to death.

To be sure, many of those who fled the Taliban in 2021, particularly those who fought alongside the United States and served as translators, were deserving of asylum in the U.S. and elsewhere. But conservative warnings that those migrants were not properly vetted have now proven prescient.

In total, between August 2021 and August 2024, nearly 150,000 Afghan migrants resettled in the United States. 90 percent of them were admitted via humanitarian parole, which grants them temporary legal status, protects them against deportation, and allows them to work but does not provide a path to citizenship. 

Then, in 2023, the Biden administration launched Operation Enduring Welcome, a new policy offering many Afghans “a direct pathway to permanent legal status in the U.S.” This program was estimated to cost $2 billion this year, including housing, education, and healthcare for covered individuals.

Along with raising legitimate concerns about inviting in Islamic extremists, critics of Biden’s approach noted the glaring conflict between Islamic culture and Judeo-Christian values upon which the United States was founded. According to Pew Research, which surveyed Muslims in 39 countries, 99 percent of Muslims in Afghanistan favor making Sharia the official law in their country. Even more alarmingly, 39 percent said suicide bombings are “often/sometimes justified.” 61 percent of Afghan Muslims also said it would be justified to impose Muslim laws on non-Muslims.

Seemingly confirming these findings, last year in Australia reports surfaced that Senator Fatima Payman, who emigrated from Afghanistan as a girl, had left the Labor Party with the intention of forming an Islamic political movement.

“Refugees who wish to enforce strict Sharia law may challenge social cohesion,” former Palestinian lawyer Dr. Amjad Younis told me in an interview. Younis currently resides in France and has converted to Catholicism. “Some Islamic preachers claim that their law takes precedence over the Constitution or any other national law.”

“The echo of this can be found in the wave of terrorist attacks in Germany, which believed it could alter these convictions,” Dr. Younis added. “Only the true God can reach these depths; man alone cannot.”

In response to the mounting threat from Islamic extremism, the Trump administration announced earlier this month that it will soon end temporary protected status for more than 10,000 Afghan migrants, requiring them to leave the United States. Those who served alongside the U.S. military will still have an avenue to remain in the country.

“The U.S. strived to help these unfortunate people, but good intentions lacked a solid foundation,” retired economist and sociologist Wolfgang Fliesbach, who advised high-ranking German politicians during the late 1980s, told me. “I did not see an assessment of the financial or national security burden that was present when they were admitted,” he added.

Balancing the moral imperative to provide safe haven to the truly persecuted with the practical necessity of protecting national security is one of the most difficult tasks any government faces. Refugee programs undoubtedly have a place in American policy, particularly for allies who stood with the U.S. in times of war. But when humanitarian instincts override common sense, or when ideology clouds judgment, the results can be deadly.

The unfortunate truth is that even a small number of extremists slipping through the cracks can wreak havoc on a free society. A government’s first and most sacred duty is to safeguard its citizens. President Trump’s more cautious, security-first approach reflects that reality – and it’s a course correction long overdue.

Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.