The individual identified publicly as “Rahmanullah Lakanwal” is either misidentified, traveling under a substituted identity, or has had a backstory artificially assigned to him for political or bureaucratic reasons.

This memorandum analyzes whether a U.S. president has sufficient statutory authority, legal precedent, and empirical basis to impose a temporary pause on immigration from certain high-risk regions in response to (1) the recent murder of a National Guardsman in Washington, D.C., (2) documented vetting failures in the 2021–2023 Afghan parole program, and (3) confirmed large-scale immigration-linked fraud involving Somali entrants and U.S. welfare programs.

America has always treated treason as the gravest possible offense against the republic. But in the modern political environment, a dangerous confusion has taken root: the belief that unless someone appears in court in handcuffs and a prosecutor utters the literal word treason, then no betrayal has occurred. This belief is not only false — it is how republics die.