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| Photo Credit: AP. |
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) brought into U.S. soil, dangerous and unvetted Afghans, the department’s inspector general said in a damning audit, The Washington Times reported. The inspector general warned that these dangerous people allowed into the country “posed a risk to national security”.
For example,
an evacuee liberated from prison by the Taliban was cleared to reach the U.S.
while another who was also cleared by the DHS was determined to pose “national security
concerns” after three months in an evaluation by the FBI, The Washington Times
reported.
The audit
noted that the evacuation was so hastily implemented that procedures were
written on the fly and screening decisions made “on an ad hoc basis,” The Washington Times cited the report
released Tuesday.
Did the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) bring Afghans who pose national security risk to the U.S.?
“As a result, DHS paroled at least two
individuals into the United States who posed a risk to national security and
the safety of local communities and may have admitted or paroled more
individuals of concern,” the inspector general concluded, according to The
Washington Times
The audit
found that the prisoner was flagged upon arrival at a U.S. airport as a Customs
and Border Protection passport screener spotted “derogatory” information in the
system, but a supervisor overruled the officer and paroled the evacuee,
according to The Washington Times.
After three weeks,
the FBI re-flagged the evacuee which led to his deportation by U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement.
Did U.S. officials assign January 1 birth day to any Afghan who can remember birthdate?
The audit
also found that people who gave “questionable” names or dates of birth were
allowed to enter the country. U.S. officials assigned a January 1 birthdate for
whatever age the evacuee said they were, The Washington Times reported.
More than 11,000 names out of 89,000 were listed as having January 1 birthdates while another 417 had no known first name, and 242 were listed with no known last name, according to the audit
The inspector
general said it was impossible for the individuals to be properly run against the
government’s database raising fears that more dangerous people were admitted
among the Afghan evacuees.
“Based on
the cultural differences and questionable data in the biographic fields, it was
challenging for DHS to fully screen and vet the evacuees,” the inspector
general said, according to The Washington Times.
The Department
of Homeland Security disagrees with the audit.
“CBP was
only one part of an interagency screening and vetting process and did, in fact,
screen, vet and inspect all Afghan nationals” at the airport, Jim H.
Crumpacker, Homeland Security’s liaison to the inspector general, wrote in the
department’s response, according to The Washington Times.
He said the
deportation of the prisoner who was initially cleared is proof that the system “works
as designed.”
Evacuees
were initially airlifted to third countries where American officials were
supposed to check their identities and fingerprints through government
databases.
If the
checks did not produce any warning signs, the evacuees were given “green status”
and cleared to enter the U.S. without any in-person interviews, according to
The Washington Times.
Those who
were flagged were given “red status” and were supposed to be blocked from
entering the U.S. until they were investigated and cleared to green status.
They were also subjected to the same passport inspection upon their arrival in the United States.
The audit
said as of March, at least 35 evacuees without green status boarded flights and
roughly 1,300 were cleared for travel even though their fingerprints had not
been run through databases.