Washington Post: Afghans Flown to U.S. Later ‘Flagged for Security Concerns’

Afghans flown to the United States have been later sent back to countries abroad after federal agencies “flagged” them for “security concerns,” the Washington Post reported.

As President Joe Biden’s administration is set to bring tens of thousands, and potentially hundreds of thousands, of Afghans to the U.S. for permanent resettlement, the Post reported Afghans are arriving in the U.S. who are later being flown back abroad after federal agencies flag them as national security risks.

“Afghans cleared to come to the United States are vetted again upon arrival. Some have been sent back to foreign staging locations after being flagged for security concerns,” the Post reported:

As the United States winds down its evacuation operation in Afghanistan, the Biden administration is accelerating efforts to resettle Afghans on U.S. soil, where they will be expected to apply for visas or humanitarian protection that could put them on a path to legal residency and citizenship. [Emphasis added]

…

More than 117,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan on U.S. and other flights as of Saturday, and Pentagon officials said the vast majority are Afghan citizens. Thousands have arrived in the United States, while thousands more are waiting in “transit hubs” in Europe and the Middle East. They are a mix of brand-new refugees and families with existing immigration applications that have been pending for months or years. [Emphasis added]

Some Afghans are arriving in the U.S. “with no documents whatsoever,” according to a source close to the Biden administration’s resettlement operation, CNN reported last week.

Last week, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said he did not know the number of Afghans who have sought resettlement in the U.S. but subsequently were found to have been on terrorist watch lists.

Pentagon officials last week, though, told Defense One that “up to 100 of the 7,000 Afghans evacuated as prospective recipients” of Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) seeking permanent resettlement in the U.S. have been “flagged” as “potential matches to intelligence agency watch lists.”

“There’s certainly been a number of them,” an official said of the Afghans flagged as possible matches for individuals listed on terrorist watch lists.

At least one of those Afghans seeking an SIV to enter the U.S. has been detained in Qatar after officials said his background revealed possible ties to the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist organization.

In at least five cases at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghans have attempted to board U.S.-bound flights using fraudulent American passports that do not belong to them, NBC News revealed.

“The U.S. mission team reported at least five cases of Afghans who presented U.S. passports that didn’t belong to them … highlighting fraud concerns and complicating the process of screening people to enter the airport,” the NBC News report stated.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.