Greater than 5,000 Afghans delivered to the US after American forces withdrew from the nation bought flagged for “nationwide safety” points, Division of Homeland Safety knowledge obtained by The Publish reveals.
In all, the feds uncovered “potential derogatory data” on a complete of 6,868 individuals who got here from Afghanistan as a part of President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.
Of that quantity, 5,005 got here up with a nationwide safety concern, whereas 956 individuals had “public security” issues and 876 have been flagged for fraud, in line with the information.
DHS offered the data to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, after he posed a collection of inquiries to the Homeland Safety Division in Could 2024.
Whereas varied US companies have been in a position to resolve lots of the pink flags, as of September there have been nonetheless 885 individuals with probably adverse nationwide safety data – posing a doable menace.
Following Wednesday’s surprising ambush of two Nationwide Guards members in Washington DC, President Trump ordered a overview of safety and vetting protocols for migrants from 19 “high-risk” nations, together with all asylum instances accepted by the prior administration.
The startling knowledge involves gentle simply days after suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly killed Nationwide Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and left Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, hospitalized in essential situation.
For years, Grassley has been urgent the FBI and DHS about “obtrusive pink flags” in this system that introduced greater than 70,000 Afghans to the US following the botched 2021 troop withdrawal.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem offered the data in a Sept. 9 letter to the lawmaker, three days after the company’s Inspector Normal reported it discovered DHS “encountered obstacles to display screen, vet and examine all evacuees.”
“I spent years calling consideration to the weak vetting requirements in Operation Allies Welcome, regardless of appreciable pushback from the Biden administration and plenty of of my colleagues in Congress,” Grassley advised The Publish.
“Sadly, this previous week’s tragedy in Washington solely validates my issues additional. I respect the Trump administration’s efforts to reply to my oversight and restore order within the wake of the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaos that adopted,” he mentioned.
One other Division of Homeland Safety IG report discovered the company had a “fragmented course of” for coping with potential safety dangers in this system.
The Justice Division’s IG, in the meantime, reported in June that 55 people who have been on a terror watch record however nonetheless made it to a US port as of Could 2023. A few of them had been added to the record whereas the evacuation was going down.
“Based on the FBI, the necessity to instantly evacuate Afghans overtook the traditional processes required to find out whether or not people making an attempt to enter the US pose a menace to nationwide safety, which elevated the chance that unhealthy actors may attempt to exploit the expedited evacuation,” the IG discovered.
Even whereas compiling its report, the IGs workplace famous the feds charged two Afghan nationals, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada, with planning an ISIS-inspired plot to attempt to disrupt the 2024 elections in Oklahoma Metropolis.
Tawhedi — who got here into the US in 2021 on a Particular Immigrant Visa and obtained two AK-47 assault rifles and 500 rounds of ammo in 2024 — pleaded responsible in June to offering materials help for ISIS and faces as much as 35 years in jail. Zada, 19, bought a 15-year sentence.
Tawhedi reportedly labored for the CIA as a safety guard in his residence nation.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed hours after the Nov. 26 Guard capturing that Lakanwal had labored alongside the CIA in Afghanistan. Ratcliffe mentioned he “ought to by no means have been allowed to come back right here.”
“It appears like they could have vouched for this man,” former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker advised The Publish, saying that cooperators “play each ends on a regular basis.”
As for US vetting efforts going ahead, “It’s important to have an analyst or an agent take a look at each doggone certainly one of them and do it critically and set some goal standards for disqualification,” he added.
