According to Republican senators, President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security continues to not screen Afghans arriving in the United States for possible terrorist ties via the Department of Defense’s tactical database.
Biden created a refugee/parole pipeline to allow tens of thousands Afghans to be quickly flown into American communities after the U.S. Armed Forces pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021. They were not required to screen or interview them in person.
An Inspector General Report by the Department of Defense (DOD), reveals that Biden’s agencies failed properly to vet Afghans arriving in America. The report states that 50 Afghans were already present in the U.S. as of November 2021 and had been flagged for “significant safety concerns.”
The report says that most of the unvetted Afghans flagged as having possible terrorist ties have disappeared into the country’s interior. One instance was that the report found only three of 31 Afghans who were flagged for security concerns months ago.
A Project Veritas report also claims that the Biden administration resettled Afghans on the federal government’s “Terrorism Watch List” in American communities.
Sens. Chuck Grassley (Republican-IA), Rob Portman(R-OH) and James Inhofe, (Republican-OK), revealed that DOD officials claimed that Biden’s DHS was still refusing screening and vet Afghan arrivals using the agency’s “tactical Database” despite warnings about possible ties to terrorism.
The GOP senators wrote:
DOD officials told us on May 4, 2022 that they had provided the FBI a spreadsheet with information about all Afghan evacuees who were flagged as potential security threats. DOD indicated that while DHS continues parole Afghans into the United States and DHS continues to release additional Afghans, DHS is not still using DOD’s tactical database to screen Afghans seeking derogatory information.
Because Afghan parolees no longer reside on military bases, DOD does not have a mandate to perform additional screening that would better safeguard our homeland security.Â
DHS’s inability to access every database for screening derogatory information has resulted in a grave breach of homeland security.
Portman, Grassley and Inhofe request that the FBI reveal their plans to deal with unvetted Afghans living in the U.S., who have been flagged as having terrorism ties.
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, during congressional testimony this month denied that the Biden Administration has resettled Afghans without terrorism ties in American communities.
