Two Years After Botched Withdrawal, The Biden Administration Has Yet to Properly Vet 88,000 Afghan Refugees

Biden Administration Fails to Properly Vet Afghan Refugees

The Biden administration’s rushed military withdrawal from Afghanistan has resulted in serious national security concerns for the state of U.S. homeland security. Over 88,000 Afghan refugees were resettled in the United States without proper vetting, according to lawmakers.

Obstacles to Screen, Vet, and Inspect Evacuees

The Department of Homeland Security encountered obstacles to screen, vet, and inspect all evacuees arriving stateside after the 2021 evacuation that killed 13 American servicemen. House Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green (R., Tenn.) and subcommittee chairs August Pfluger (R., Texas), Dan Bishop (R., N.C.), and Clay Higgins (R., La.) said Monday in a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

• The U.S. Customs and Border Protection lacked critical data to properly vet evacuees
• Thousands of Afghan refugees landed in America without passports or basic identifying information

“Not only did the Biden administration’s catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan threaten our allies in the region by allowing the Taliban to return the country to a terrorist breeding ground,” Green told the Free Beacon, “but the failure of DHS to properly vet or screen all Afghan nationals during the evacuation has put the U.S. homeland and our security interests at great risk.”

Lawmakers Demand Documents

Green and Pfluger are demanding the Biden administration hand over a trove of documents, including classified information, as part of the House GOP’s larger investigation into the 2021 evacuation from Afghanistan. The pair notes that lawmakers still lack a full understanding of what went wrong with the withdrawal because Homeland Security “has stonewalled requests from committee members for information” from the outset.

• The Homeland Security Committee wants Homeland Security to provide all internal communications about Afghanistan from January 1, 2021, to the present
• This includes “all documents and communications between or among employees of DHS referring or relating to CBP’s screening, vetting, or inspection of Afghan evacuees,” according to the letter

The failure to produce these documents could result in a subpoena, a primary vehicle for Congress to force the Biden administration to comply with its investigations.

Concerns Over Terrorist Safe Haven

Former U.S. defense and counterterrorism officials told Congress that Afghanistan “is once again a terrorist safe haven” under Taliban rule. Officials are particularly concerned that DHS and other intelligence agencies no longer have vetting networks in place that could thwart a future terrorist attack.