Two Republican senators recently drafted letters\nhighlighting ongoing issues with Afghan evacuees being improperly resettled in\nthe United States. While addressing separate components, both senators touched\non the myriad issues surrounding the Biden administration\u2019s decision to bring\ntens of thousands of unvetted Afghans into the country following our botched\nwithdrawal from Kabul in August. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and 15 of her Republican colleagues\nsent a letter<\/a>\nto Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Defense Secretary Lloyd\nAustin in response to reports that Afghan evacuees are leaving U.S. military\nbases without proper vetting or background checks. Senator Ernst wrote: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Afghans selected to board\nAmerican military planes in Kabul did not complete the long-established\ninteragency vetting processes\u2026 Accounts of older men admitted with young girls\nclaimed as \u201cbrides,\u201d coupled with the testimony of Afghan girls alleging rape\nand forced marriage by older men as a precondition for escaping Afghanistan,\nmust be urgently investigated. Recently, two Afghan men at Fort McCoy were\ncharged with sexual assault of minors and domestic violence. And just last week\na group of male Afghan refugees temporarily housed at the Dona Ana army complex\nin New Mexico assaulted a female service member. The vetting process must\nensure the security, medical, and criminal screening of each Afghan seeking\nadmittance into the United States. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Many organizations, politicians, and individuals support\nproviding assistance to Afghans who assisted or worked alongside the U.S.\nmilitary and our allies during the two decades of conflict in Afghanistan. That\nis why the U.S. established the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV). But the fact is that\nthe vast majority of Afghans who escaped Kabul in August were not SIV holders\nor applicants. Secretary Mayorkas admitted that only\nthree percent<\/a> of Afghan evacuees are SIV recipients or applicants. Who\nmakes up the other 97 percent? We do not know. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Reuters recently\nreported<\/a> that over 700 Afghans chose to leave temporary housing before\nregistering with refugee resettlement organizations. The report reads that \u201chundreds\nof [Afghans] are simply leaving before receiving U.S. resettlement services\u2026 the\nphenomenon is raising alarms among immigration advocates concerned about the\nrisks to Afghans who give up on what is now an open-ended, complex and\ncompletely voluntary resettlement process.\u201d Prior to Reuters\u2019 reporting, Rep.\nTom Tiffany<\/a> (R-Wis.) told media outlets that federal authorities allowed\nAfghans housed at Wisconsin\u2019s Fort McCoy to leave the base whenever they\npleased. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a separate but related letter<\/a>,\nSenator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) demanded answers to seven questions from Secretary\nMayorkas regarding these independent departures. Just as Senator Ernst did,\nSenator Cotton cited numerous reports of crimes\ncommitted by Afghan evacuees<\/a> now in the United States. Senator Cotton\nwrites: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The U.S. government is currently\ninvestigating multiple crimes committed in evacuee facilities\u2026 Even\npreviously-deported criminals – including an Afghan who had previously been\nconvicted of rape in the United States, and another who had previously been\nconvicted of aggravated robbery – were airlifted back to the United States. In\nlight of these reports, it is alarming that hundreds of Afghan evacuees have\nreportedly left U.S. military bases directly into our communities, possibly\nbefore completing our vetting and immigration processes. <\/em><\/p><\/p>\n\n\n\n The separate letters from Senators Ernst and Cotton\nemphasize the disturbing reality of our country\u2019s mismanagement of the Kabul\nevacuation. Rather than holding unscreened, anonymous Afghan evacuees in nearby\nallied countries or offshore U.S. territories like Guam, we brought them\nstraight to the United States. We have no way of verifying or cross-checking\ninformation from evacuees because we do not have any continued presence in\nAfghanistan and we destroyed countless records before abandoning the embassy\nand our military installations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Every single Afghan who made it to an American outbound\nflight is here to stay \u2013 period. Aside from the 3 percent of those who hold\nbona fide SIV status, we do not have a clue as to who these people are and what\ntheir relationship to the United States is. This situation is not going away\nanytime soon, and senators from both parties, not just Republicans, must begin\nholding the Biden administration accountable for the consequences of the\nongoing situation with unvetted Afghan evacuees. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Two Republican senators recently drafted letters highlighting ongoing issues with Afghan evacuees being improperly resettled in the United States. While addressing separate components, both senators touched on the myriad issues surrounding the Biden administration\u2019s decision to bring tens of thousands of unvetted Afghans into the country following our botched withdrawal from Kabul in August. Senator<\/p>\n