President Joe Biden’s Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is continuing to not screen Afghan arrivals to the United States for potential terrorism ties through the Department of Defense’s “tactical database,” according to Republican senators.
Following the U.S. Armed Forces’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, Biden opened a refugee and parole pipeline for tens of thousands of Afghans to quickly be flown into American communities without being screened or interviewed in person beforehand.
As Breitbart News reported, a Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General report reveals that Biden’s agencies failed to properly vet Afghans arriving in the U.S. As of November 2021, the report states that 50 Afghans already in the U.S. had been flagged for “significant security concerns.”
Most of the unvetted Afghans flagged for possible terrorism ties, the report states, have since disappeared into the nation’s interior. In one instance, the report noted that only three of 31 Afghans flagged months ago for security concerns could be located.
Likewise, a recent Project Veritas report alleges that the Biden administration has resettled Afghans listed on the federal government’s “Terrorism Watch List” across American communities.
In a letter to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Rob Portman (R-OH), and James Inhofe (R-OK) revealed DOD officials have stated that Biden’s DHS is still refusing to screen and vet Afghan arrivals through the agency’s “tactical database” despite warnings that many could have ties to terrorism.
The GOP senators write:
On May 4, 2022, DOD officials informed us that they provided the FBI with a spreadsheet containing information on all the Afghan evacuees flagged as potentially significant security concerns. DOD also indicated that, while DHS continues to parole additional Afghans into the United States, DHS is still not using DOD’s tactical database to screen Afghans for derogatory information. [Emphasis added]
Since Afghan parolees are no longer being housed on military bases, DOD no longer has a force protection mandate to carry out the additional screening that would better protect our homeland security. [Emphasis added]
DHS’s failure to use every database to screen for derogatory information has caused a serious breach of homeland security. Accordingly, we request that you provide us with information about those evacuees flagged by DOD and steps the FBI has taken to adjudicate their derogatory information, including locating individuals currently within the United States. [Emphasis added]
Grassley, Portman, and Inhofe are requesting that the FBI turn over their plan to deal with the threat of unvetted Afghans in the U.S. who have been flagged for terrorism ties.
“… we would like to know how the FBI is addressing the counterterrorism threat posed by Afghan parolees that have not been screened by DHS against the tactical database,” the GOP senators write.
During congressional testimony this month, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas denied that the Biden administration has resettled unvetted Afghans with terrorism ties across American communities.
“We consider there to be infirmities in that report — factual inaccuracies … I know that there are a number of factual inaccuracies in that report,” Mayorkas said of the DOD Inspector General report.
Biden is currently asking Congress to authorize the resettlement of Afghans for the next decade and to put the more than 85,000 resettled Afghans on a fast track to naturalized American citizenship. That plan is being supported by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Rob Portman (R-OH).
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.
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