Waynesboro: Afghan man detained by ICE for allegedly supporting ISIS

The Trump administration is wasting no time rounding up Afghan nationals in the United States including a Waynesboro man who it claims provided weapons to ISIS.

Jaan Shah Safi was arrested yesterday in Waynesboro, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the third Afghan arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since an attack in Washington on Nov. 26 that killed one National Guard member, Sarah Beckstrom, and injured another, Andrew Wolfe, blocks from the White House.

The gunman in that incident, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, previously worked with the CIA in Kandahar, and came to the U.S. in 2021 after the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan. The shooter applied for asylum in 2024, and his application was granted in 2025. His request for a green card was pending, according to DHS.

“We’re not going to put up with these kind of assaults on law and order by people who shouldn’t even be in the country,” President Donald Trump said following the shooting, using the tragic attack to ramp up his efforts to deport immigrants in the country.

Safi came to the U.S. legally under the same program as Lakanwal, known as Operation Allies Welcome. He arrived in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2021, in Philadelphia. He had since applied for temporary protected status, or TPS.

Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem ended TPS for Afghans on July 22. The administration had also halted Afghan refugee resettlement in January.

Noem called Safi an “illegal alien terrorist” in a news release sent out by the administration today. She also, no surprise, blamed the Biden administration for bringing him to the U.S.

DHS alleges that Safi’s father is a commander of a militia group in Afghanistan. In the news release, Noem alleges that Safi provided material support to ISIS. The news release does not list any formal charges against Safi.

Republican Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) used the arrest yesterday in Waynesboro to reaffirm his allegiance to the president and his administration, calling Safi “dangerous” and thanking local law enforcement officers who participated in the arrest. His statement echoed the partisan release sent out by DHS earlier today.

“This incident happened right here in our own community, and it underscores the real-world consequences of the Biden administration’s failure to properly vet the nearly 190,000 Afghan nationals released into the United States under Operation Allies Welcome.

“Republicans warned from the start that border security is national security, and every community has felt the impacts of the Biden-Harris border crisis,” said Cline.

In response to the shooting in Washington, Trump announced the U.S. has paused all immigration applications, including green card and citizenship, for people from 19 countries, including Afghanistan and Somalia. It also includes Burma (Myanmar), Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.

“Citizenship is a privilege, not a right. We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake,” a spokesperson for DHS said in a statement.

On social media, a different side of Safi emerged that painted a picture far different than DHS. He was lauded for his two decades of serving as an ally of the U.S., fighting ISIS as it beheaded innocent people.

“I know him personally — he believes in democracy, he is not a terrorist, and he has always been a loyal friend and a patriotic Afghan. I am confident that the truth will prove his innocence,” wrote Javid Safi. “He always believed the U.S. was his second home. Now I see he is accused of supporting ISIS? This is unbelievable.”