The death of 20-year-old National Guard Specialist Sarah Beckstrom in Washington, D.C., is not just another tragedy in a country that has become far too used to tragedy. It is the culmination of two catastrophic political failures that have defined the last decade: the Democrat crusade to delegitimize immigration enforcement, and the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal that unleashed an unaccountable, poorly vetted resettlement crisis. When you combine a political class that openly demonizes ICE and Border Patrol as villains with an administration that rushed tens of thousands of Afghans into the United States under a “trust us” vetting process, you get the exact kind of environment where something like this can happen. Not because every migrant is dangerous—but because politics created a climate where bad actors slip through, and the people who stand between us and chaos become the targets.
Specialist Beckstrom was volunteering in D.C. on Thanksgiving. She didn’t know the people she was protecting. They didn’t know her. That’s the beauty of the National Guard: Americans stepping up for strangers simply because it’s right. And somehow, in the capital of the United States of America, she was shot and killed while serving her country. Her fellow Guardsman, 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe, is fighting for his life. And the suspected shooter—Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national—entered the country through Operation Allies Welcome, the rushed Biden-era evacuation program created after the Afghanistan collapse. Officials say he was “clean on all checks.” CIA cleared. Asylum cleared. No problems. Yet here we are.
What makes this even more sickening is that this didn’t happen in a vacuum. For years, certain voices in American politics have insisted that immigration enforcement is inherently immoral. ICE was labeled a “terrorist organization.” Border Patrol was compared to “Nazis.” Sanctuary city policies turned federal law into suggestions. Every attempt to screen or deport dangerous individuals was portrayed as xenophobia. Meanwhile, after the Afghanistan debacle, the same political class swung the doors open and dared anyone to question the vetting process—because to do so was, again, “racist.” They told us everything was safe. They told us it was all handled. They told us we should shut up and move aside.
And now a National Guard soldier is dead.
We still do not know the motive for this shooting, and investigators have not suggested direct political radicalization. But to pretend politics plays no role in what America is becoming is ridiculous. When elected officials spend years telling the public that enforcing immigration law is cruel and illegitimate, when entire cities refuse to cooperate with federal officers, and when media activists frame border security as “bigotry,” it erodes the moral boundaries that keep our country safe. It creates an atmosphere where those who already have instability, resentment, or radical tendencies begin to view uniformed American personnel—not as protectors, but as acceptable targets. That is the predictable consequence of normalizing hostility toward law enforcement and immigration enforcement.
Then add the Afghan resettlement crisis. Operation Allies Welcome was sold as a moral obligation. And yes, America should protect genuine allies who fought beside our troops. But that program became a stampede. Tens of thousands were airlifted with incomplete documentation, partial records, or mismatched identities. The Biden administration insisted there were “no systemic failures” in vetting—but reports and whistleblowers repeatedly warned that many cases were rushed, incomplete, or rubber-stamped because of political pressure. When a country prioritizes speed over security, mistakes happen. Mistakes that cost lives.
This is not a call to villainize all Afghan refugees or immigrants. It is a call to question the people who engineered this chaos, shut down legitimate scrutiny, and mocked anyone who dared raise concerns. The American people are compassionate, but they are not stupid—and they deserve a government that respects both sides of that equation.
As details emerge, one thing is already clear: Specialist Sarah Beckstrom died because a uniform no longer guarantees safety on American soil. Her killer should never have had the opportunity to harm her, and the system that allowed him through will once again shrug its shoulders and say “no failures.” But politicians will now line up to offer thoughts and prayers—while refusing to acknowledge that their rhetoric and policies helped build the conditions that led to this moment.
President Trump announced Beckstrom’s death on Thanksgiving, calling her “highly respected, young, magnificent,” and urging the nation to pray for Andrew Wolfe. Federal officials, from AG Pam Bondi to Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth to FBI Director Kash Patel, all honored her service. Yet none of their statements can erase the fact that a 20-year-old soldier serving her country is dead in the nation’s capital because her government failed her.
The question now is simple: Will this country finally wake up to the consequences of open-borders politics, reckless refugee programs, and anti-enforcement rhetoric? Or will we wait for the next Sarah, the next Andrew, the next family destroyed because the people in charge think borders are optional and law enforcement is offensive?
The American people deserve security. Our troops deserve protection. And the families of these Guardsmen deserve justice—not excuses, not political spin, not claims that everything “worked as intended.”
Specialist Beckstrom gave her life serving a nation that did not do nearly enough to protect her. And that is a failure that belongs to more than one man with a gun. It belongs to an entire political ideology that treats immigration enforcement as a moral crime, national security as a public-relations nuisance, and the American people as an afterthought.
From all of us at Steadfast & Loyal, our deepest condolences go out to the family of Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, and our prayers remain with Specialist Andrew Wolfe as he fights for his life. May God be with them, guide their families, and strengthen the community that now mourns one of its own.
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JIMMY
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