WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said Thursday that it was reviewing all asylum cases that had been approved under the Biden administration, signaling a broad crackdown in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.

Officials said the 29-year-old Afghan man had shot the guard members and that he had entered the United States through a Biden-era program that brought tens of thousands of Afghans into the country. The accusation has renewed questions about the vetting process for a variety of entry programs, including asylum.

But despite the administration blaming Biden, records show that it was the Trump administration that granted asylum to Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the shooting suspect, in April of this year, according Reuters news service.

Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokesperson, in announcing the review of asylum cases, accused the previous administration of failing to vet the applicants “on a massive scale.”

The man identified as the suspect was said to have worked with the CIA and fled Afghanistan in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a program born after the sudden fall of the Afghan government in 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces and the Taliban took control of the country. The suspect received asylum from the U.S. government in April, according to three people with knowledge of the case who were not authorized to speak publicly.

At the time of the collapse of Afghanistan’s government, the Biden administration faced accusations of abandoning allies in the country, as fears grew that those who helped the U.S. military and people involved in civil society, like journalists, would face serious threats.

Biden administration officials insisted then that Afghan nationals who came through the program had been properly vetted and screened, but their critics pointed to an inspector general report that later found significant flaws in the process.

A more recent audit, focusing on the FBI’s involvement, said the security risks from those earlier flaws had been “largely mitigated” as the FBI continued to investigate and vet Afghan nationals after they were paroled into the United States.

“The screening and vetting process involves biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals,” the Homeland Security Department said in a statement in September 2021, days after the evacuation of Americans and allies as the Taliban took control.

Homeland Security Department officials also said then that people who failed the checks would not be allowed to fly into the United States and that if Afghans who had already arrived and received further checks had any concerning information they could be turned back.

Shawn VanDiver, the president of #AfghanEvac, an advocacy group for Afghan nationals brought to the United States, said in an interview that the Trump administration was “capitalizing” on the shooting to punish the members of the Afghan community “who fought beside U.S. troops” against the Taliban.

VanDiver called the review of approved asylum petitions “a political stunt.” He said that the Homeland Security Department was seeking to absolve itself after the shooting, noting that the department had diverted resources away from combating terrorism and toward immigration enforcement.

According to a 2022 audit of the vetting process, it was supposed to include obtaining biometric information from the Afghans, running the information through databases to ensure there wasn’t any “derogatory” information or potential threats, and another inspection when the Afghans arrived at U.S. airports.

But the report, from the Homeland Security Department inspector general’s office, found serious flaws in the process.

The office found that the department “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect Afghan evacuees arriving.”