Washington, D.C. (August 31, 2021) – Confusion surrounds the manner and timing of vetting that the Afghans undergo who are being flown to the United States and the potential national security risks Americans are being asked to tolerate. Mark Krikorian, the executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, wrote in a recent National Review article that it is irrelevant whether the Afghans evacuated from Kabul are being vetted in third countries, often while held at American bases, before being let into the U.S.
According to Krikorian, “Vetting is only as good as the information you have to vet people against. The evacuation from Kabul was so haphazard and rushed that many, perhaps most, of those extracted were not such previously screened people. Representative Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) told the Washington Times that of the 2,000 Afghans housed at a base in his state, not one had the Special Immigrant Visa for Afghans employed by, or on behalf of, the U.S. government. So, how to screen those Afghans who’ve never been screened? Given Afghanistan’s low level of development, it’s not like the record-keeping there was ever comprehensive and efficient, if it existed at all.”
Krikorian highlights a key security dilemma - regardless of what incriminating information is discovered during vetting or how large a security threat the evacuee presents, the individual cannot be deported to Afghanistan or released in the countries in which they are being temporarily held. They will have to be resettled in the U.S.
Krikorian concludes, “The whole notion of holding Afghans offshore until they’re vetted is a charade. Those who don’t have a Special Immigrant Visa are simply being “paroled” into the U.S. Immigration parole is a work-around whereby the executive can temporarily let in visa-less foreigners for humanitarian reasons. But like so much else in our dishonest immigration system, “temporary” in this case means permanent. Every Afghan we extracted from Kabul will be able to live here for the rest of his life, even if the Afghan refugee commits crimes after his arrival.”
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