Proper Vetting Needed of Afghan Immigrants Enrolled in Resettlement Programs: Rep. Comer

Afghan refugee women register to be seen by a doctor inside the medical tent at Liberty Village on Joint Base McGuire-Dix- Lakehurst, N.J., on Dec, 2, 2021. Barbara Davidson/Pool via AP

The Biden administration’s Afghan immigrant relocation program is being probed by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, with Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) raising concerns about the “nature of persons” who are being resettled.

The issue has come to the fore as hundreds of Afghans are suspected of having terror links, with many individuals not providing proper documents to U.S. authorities during the transfer process.

The committee is investigating programs started by the Biden administration to relocate Afghans in the United States following its “disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021,” Mr. Comer said in a Sept. 21 letter (pdf) to officials in charge of the relocation efforts. Over 70,000 former Afghan nationals have been resettled throughout American communities, Mr. Comer said in a statement.

“It is inconceivable that proper vetting procedures were followed during the chaos and disarray of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan and questions remain to the nature of persons enrolled in domestic resettlement programs,” he said.

“It is incumbent upon Congress to gain more transparency into the programs that have been instated to accomplish resettlement efforts and gain answers for the American people.”

The relocation was done through the Operation Allies Welcome program involving multiple agencies, led by the U.S. Department of State. The department’s Office of the Coordinator for Afghan Relocation Efforts (CARE) is managing the relocation efforts.

Potential Terror Suspects Relocated

The committee is seeking documents related to the CARE program, including contracts, agreements, and communications. It also asked for information on employees and contractors involved in the CARE program and the hiring process that led to such appointments. The documents are to be submitted by Oct. 5.

The letter pointed out that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability is the “principal oversight committee” of the U.S. House of Representatives and thus has the authority to investigate “any matter at any time.”

The letter was written to Dan Forbes, chief of staff for CARE, and Joel Sandefur, Afghanistan mission director at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

The issue of improper vetting of Afghan nationals came to light last year when Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) raised the issue.

In an Aug. 4, 2022, letter (pdf) to the acting inspector general of the Department of Defense (DOD), the senators cited a “patriotic whistleblower” from the department who alleged that 324 individuals evacuated from Afghanistan entered the United States despite their names being present in the Biometrically Enabled Watchlist (BEWL).

BEWL is a DOD watchlist that “identifies individuals whose biometrics have been collected and determined by analysts to be threats or potential threats to national security, including known suspected terrorists,” the letter said.

An earlier report from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of Inspector General had found that the department failed to fully vet about 80,000 Afghans brought into the United States.

Many of them did not have full names, and over 11,000 listed their birth dates as Jan. 1.

Afghan Settlement in US

Mr. Comer’s Sept. 21 letter came the same day that Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced an “extension and redesignation” of Afghanistan’s Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for 18 months that gives temporary legal status to Afghan migrants.

The TPS extension is effective Nov. 21, 2023, to May 20, 2025, and applies to 3,100 existing migrant beneficiaries. It would also enable an estimated 14,600 more Afghan nationals to make their initial applications for TPS and stay in the United States.

A country is designated with TPS when it experiences an ongoing armed conflict, environmental disaster, or other extraordinary conditions.

U.S. Soldiers and Marines assist with security at an Evacuation Control Checkpoint during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 19, 2021. Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/U.S. Marine Corps via Getty Images

Afghanistan’s designation is due to the “serious threat posed by ongoing armed conflict; lack of access to food, clean water and healthcare; and destroyed infrastructure, internal displacement and economic instability,” the DHS said.

Fox News reporter Adam Shaw said on social media that the DHS decision would also apply to Afghans who crossed into the United States illegally.

In June, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said that Border Patrol agents had seen a 1,000 percent rise in the number of illegal immigrants entering the United States, including from Afghanistan.

“While we work diligently to repatriate migrants from these countries, we still have challenges with countries’ governments to get working programs in place to repatriate all those we apprehend,” he said at the time.

During America’s two-decade-long war in Afghanistan, thousands of Afghan residents aided the U.S. war effort in the region, including those who acted as interpreters. Such individuals were promised U.S. visas for their families in exchange for their services. This was done under the special immigrant visa (SIV) program, Foreign Policy reported in March.

According to the outlet, applications for the program were surging at the time, with seven times more applicants in the visa pipeline at the time compared to the summer of 2021.

In an interview with Foreign Policy, Shawn VanDiver, president and chair of the board of #AfghanEvac, one of the largest private organizations trying to relocate Afghan people from the country, estimated that “somewhere between 250,000 and 300,000—or maybe more” were eligible to leave with SIVs, P-1s, and P-2s.

Both P-1 and P-2 are visas that grant temporary travel permits to the United States.