Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rob Portman (R-OH) are throwing their support behind a plan by President Joe Biden to provide green cards to more than 85,000 Afghans resettled across the United States over the last eight months, putting them on a fast-track for naturalized American citizenship.
As Breitbart News reported, Biden has slipped the quasi-amnesty plan for tens of thousands of Afghans he resettled in American communities into a $33 billion Ukraine funding bill.
The plan would ensure that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas would be allowed to offer green cards to Afghans given humanitarian parole by the Biden administration. After five years of holding a green card, the Afghans would be able to apply for naturalized American citizenship.
Graham and Portman both suggested to Roll Call on Tuesday that they support the plan even as the Defense Department has noted that the Biden administration failed to properly vet many of the Afghans resettled in the U.S.
Graham told Roll Call, “I’d like to see these people have some certainty in their lives.”
RJ Hauman, with the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told Breitbart News that Graham and Portman’s support comes even as they have accused Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of mishandling immigration issues.
“Some Senate Republicans are speaking out of both sides of their mouth when it comes to Alejandro Mayorkas,” Hauman said. “Don’t blast him for triggering a historic border crisis and then give him more broad authority to abuse.”
Biden has resettled more than 85,000 Afghans in American communities across 46 states since mid-August 2021 and plans to continue resettling tens of thousands of Afghans throughout the year while asking Congress to authorize the resettlement of Afghans for the next decade.
As of November 2021, the Defense Department report states that 50 Afghans already in the U.S. have been flagged for “significant security concerns.” Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties have since disappeared within the U.S. In one instance, only 3 of 31 Afghans flagged months ago for security concerns could be located.
The Defense Department report states:
As of November 2, 2021, NGIC personnel had identified 50 Afghan personnel in the United States with information in DOD records that would indicate potentially significant security concerns. [Emphasis added]
DOD personnel could not locate some Afghan evacuees whom NGIC personnel identified as having derogatory information that would make them ineligible for the parolee program conducted at [U.S.] safe havens. Specifically, NGIC personnel stated that they could not locate some Afghan evacuees when attempting to report derogatory information to the DOD and U.S. Government agencies supporting [U.S.] safe havens. [Emphasis added]
For example, as of September 17, 2021, the NGIC had identified 31 Afghans in [the U.S.] who had derogatory information. Of those 31, only 3 could be located. [Emphasis added]
The resettlement was first authorized by 49 House and Senate Republicans, who joined Democrats in September 2021 to fund the resettlement to the sum of $6.4 billion. Then, in December 2021, 20 House and Senate Republicans helped Democrats pass an additional $7 billion in funds to ramp up the endless Afghan migration.
The nation’s Afghan population, since former President George W. Bush authorized the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, has exploded from 44,000 in 2001 to 133,000 in 2019.
The majority, 65 percent, of Afghan-immigrant-headed households in the U.S. use at least one major form of welfare — that is, food stamps, cash assistance, or Medicaid. In this regard, Afghan-immigrant-headed households are much more likely to use welfare than households headed by native-born Americans.
For instance, Afghan-immigrant-headed households use more than three times the food stamps as native-born American households. In 2010, about 19 percent of Afghan-immigrant-headed households used food stamps, but that total has skyrocketed to 35 percent in 2019.
Likewise, the number of Afghan immigrant households that live in or near the U.S. poverty line is close to 51 percent. This is significantly higher than the proportion of households headed by native-born Americans, where about 27 percent live in or near poverty.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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