Lawmakers wary of administration vetting procedures for Afghan refugee influx at SW bases

By most accounts, the Biden administration bungled the task of getting Americans out of Afghanistan.

Now,  skeptical Southwestern lawmakers are wondering if the same administration can be trusted to do any better on its next test: letting Afghanis into America.

After touring Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas on Friday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), has been raising concerns not only about Afghan refugees coming to the U.S. not being properly vetted but also about the security of their housing arrangements at Fort Bliss.

Congresswoman Yvette Herrelle (R-N.M.) says she's concerned about the number of Afghans coming to Fort Hollomon in her district in New Mexico, which is scheduled to house more Afghans than any other district in the U.S. — 19,000. 

Fort Bliss is expected to house 10,000, with at least 2,000 Afghan refugees being held not far away from where unaccompanied minors are also being housed and where claims of abuse have been lodged. 

A security perimeter has been established around the quarters where the Afghans are staying at Doña Ana McGregor Range at the base.



Dana Pittard, a former commander at Fort Bliss, told KTSM News that where they are staying should not cause anyone to be alarmed. "The harm to surrounding civilian population is absolutely minimal," she said.

But Cruz says Afghans can come and go from the base whenever they want and this raises safety concerns for Texans. An official at Fort Bliss told him that one refugee called an Uber to go to downtown El Paso. Officials at Fort Bliss "are not detaining anyone there, so if 10,000 refugees arrive there, every one of those 10,000 can choose to leave tomorrow," Cruz told reporters.

Cruz told reporters at a press conference at Fort Bliss that while he supported evacuating Afghans he was concerned about the vetting process.

"I agree with getting them out of harm's way I just think we should be getting them to a neutral third country rather than making the United States vulnerable," he said.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has explained that tens of thousands of Afghans have been brought to third countries like Bahrain, Qatar and Germany — "lily pads" in the parlance — to be vetted, "either because they've only proceeded through certain steps of this — of the immigrant visa process or because their vetting process has not yet been completed."

Screening and security vetting is conducted by law enforcement and counterterrorism professionals from across the government, Psaki said, including the Department of Homeland Security, Department of Defense, FBI, State Department and the National Counterterrorism Center.

 

"What they are doing are they're conducting screening and security vetting for all [Special Immigrant Visa] applicants and other vulnerable Afghans before they are allowed into the United States," she said. "This includes reviews of both biographic and biometric data. And if an individual is not through that vetting process, they're not coming into the United States."

"I can absolutely assure you," Psaki emphasized, "that no one is coming into the United States of America who has not been through a thorough screening and background check process."

Afghans ineligible for the SIV program are being processed through facilities in Bahrain, Qatar, and Germany, where they go through "vetting across multiple government agencies and the National Counterterrorism Center," according to a U.S. official quoted by  Task & Purpose. This includes biometric screening, polygraph tests and regular scans of their phones.

A small percentage of Afghan refugees — "0.5% or more," according to a Pentagon official cited by the Daily Caller — are being flagged through biometric background checks for possible ties to terrorism. 

The Washington Times reported that a convicted rapist previously deported from the U.S. was among Afghans who reached Washington-Dulles Airport on an evacuation flight. Either the vetting process wasn't followed, or his rape conviction and deportation record weren't enough to prevent him from boarding the flight. 

The individual was convicted of rape in Idaho in 2010, served more than five years in state prison, was released, and then deported two years later. He is currently being detained in Virginia. 

"The people of New Mexico deserve to have a say in this process, to know how vetting is being conducted, and to know the results of that vetting," Rep. Herrell told DailyMail.com.

"Unfortunately," she continued, "the Biden administration has completely botched the process, as well as a proven track record of letting unvetted criminals cross our borders with impunity. As a member of the Oversight Committee and the Representative for the Second District, I am fighting for transparency and the rights of American citizens to protect their communities." 

A State Department official told the Wall Street Journal that it doesn't have reliable data on everyone who evacuated Afghanistan and what types of visas they may qualify for.

Cruz, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Biden "broke all the promises he made to the American people" through his botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which doesn't give him much credibility on the vetting process or anything else. 

At a Pentagon briefing Wednesday morning, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley said that 20,000 Afghans have already arrived at eight military bases in the U.S.