The Biden administration still doesn’t know the identities of 75,000 Afghan refugees resettled in the U.S. four months after the withdrawal, and some Republican senators are asking questions

 by Edward Ulrich, September 10, 2022


Three U.S. senators Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), Josh Hawley (R., Mo.), and Rick Scott (R., Fla.), are asking questions about the Biden administration airlifting nearly 75,000 people out of Afghanistan to be resettled in the United States four months ago, without knowing their identities or backgrounds, according the classified briefings they have received about the situation.  They have submitted a letter to the Department of Homeland Security with a list of questions about the matter, demanding answers by the year’s end.

Following is a summary of a December 17, 2021 Washington Free Beacon article detailing the issue:

— The senators explained in a letter they sent to the Department of Homeland Security, “During a nonpublic briefing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, it was made clear that not all security and vetting measures have been taken to ensure the safety of our homeland.”  They explained that Congress does not have basic information about who the refugees are or if they are qualified to be in the country, telling the Biden administration to address the lack of transparency about the evacuation and resettlement operation.

— “It is beyond unacceptable that several months after President Biden’s disastrous and deadly withdrawal we still do not have a full account of all the Americans who are still trapped in Afghanistan or a full account of the Afghans who were evacuated to the U.S. ... We are still concerned about your agencies’ ability to fully vet these individuals if they do not have any identification documents and cannot prove who they claim to be,” they wrote.

— The Biden administration has been obstructing congressional investigations into the bungled Afghanistan evacuation effort in the month since it has occurred, and Secretary of State Antony Bilken has admitted to Congress that most refugees were not vetted prior to arriving in the U.S.

— Internal emails show that those running the evacuation effort were ordered to fill flights “to excess” with unvetted Afghans, and at least 12,000 of them arrived without a visa or basic identification, which the Free Beacon first reported in October 2021.

— The lawmakers also expressed concern about the 300 Americans who have been reported to be trapped in the country during the hasty evacuation with no way to get back home.

— They are demanding the following answers by the year’s end:

1.  They want to know how many Afghans refugees cannot be identified, and the steps that are being taken to ensure those individuals are not violent criminals or affiliated with terrorist organizations.

2.  They want to know if the Biden administration has created new identity documents for those who arrived without any paperwork. 

3.  They want to know if any of the refugees have been connected to terrorism or other crimes, as well as if they were interviewed in person by personnel in the U.S. before being settled.

4.  Some of those airlifted to the U.S. were complicit in child trafficking and sex crimes (see this link, and this link), and the Senators want to know how many of the refugees have been arrested for such crimes and are slated to be deported, and they want to know if Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained any of the Afghans over national security concerns.

5.  They want the DHS to report about the number of the Afghan nationals who have been resettled in each state so far.