In a letter to the Biden administration, Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) demanded answers to the White House’s “miscommunication” regarding the vetting of Afghanistan refugees.
The letter reads, “The Biden Administration’s unwillingness to answer basic questions about Afghan parolees and its vetting procedures, especially when coupled with OMB’s request for Congress to waive terrorist, national security, and all other grounds of inadmissibility, raises significant national security concerns about Operation Allies Welcome.”
The letter was also signed by Senators James Lankford (R-OK), Rand Paul (R-KY), Rick Scott (R-FL) and Josh Hawley (R-MO). All of the senators are part of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
The letter goes on to discuss how parole had been given to various Afghan refugees, rather than properly vetting them for Special Immigrant Visas.
They wrote, “Regarding Afghan nationals who have been resettled in the United States, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued a memorandum on August 23, 2021, instructing US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to ‘parole certain Afghan nationals into the United States.’”
The letter continues saying that, “This memo explicitly notes that ‘some of these individuals were in various stages of processing for immigration status in the United States . . . but were not able to complete these processes because of the certain situation in Afghanistan.’”
The senators believe that those admissions raise “significant national security concerns.”
The senators asked that the Office of Management and Budget answer several questions regarding the waiving of all grounds of inadmissibility for Afghan refugees:
- How many Afghan nationals are waiting on background checks at a transit site? How many Afghan nationals have been paroled into the United States?
- What specific categories, classes, or criteria constitute the Administration’s definition of “vulnerable Afghans”? How many individuals who have been paroled into the United States fall under each category, class, or criteria?
- At an unclassified level, please describe in detail and with reference to the USCIS fact sheet cited in Footnote 4 the vetting procedures that occurred prior to arrival at a transit site (“lily pad”), during the Afghan nationals’ time at the transit site, and upon or after arrival in the United States?
- How many Afghan nationals have unresolved flags in their security checks during their tenure at a transit site? Of those who did have unresolved flags, how many – if any – were allowed to board U.S.-bound flights before these flags were resolved? For each case that had an unresolved flag, please explain why the individual was allowed to board the flight from the transit site to the United States.
- How many Afghan parolees have unresolved flags in their security checks after arriving in the United States? At an unclassified level, how many of those checks have been subsequently resolved and how many are still pending?
- On what data or information did OMB base its request to Congress to allow the DHS Secretary to waive all grounds of inadmissibility, including terrorist, criminal, drug trafficking, and human trafficking, for Afghan parolees on a case-by-case basis? Please share this data or information with the Committee.
- Absent Congressional action to give the DHS Secretary such discretion, what is the Administration’s plan to remove any Afghan nationals who fail to clear security vetting?
The letter from the senators followed several incidents involving Afghan refugees abusing and sexually assaulting other Afghans and even a U.S. service member while being temporarily housed in the United States.
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Hayley Tschetter is a reporter with The Minnesota Sun and The Wisconsin Daily Star | Star News Network. Follow Hayley on Twitter or like her Facebook page. Send news tips to [email protected].
