DHS OIG faults Afghan evacuee vetting, warns national security threats may have entered US

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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) failed to properly vet and screen Afghan evacuees coming into the U.S. and may have allowed multiple national security and public safety threats into the U.S., according to a new report by the department’s office of inspector general.

The report by the DHS Office of Inspector General found that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) "did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect the evacuees."

"We determined some information used to vet evacuees through U.S. Government databases, such as name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing. We also determined CBP admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States," the report says.

"As a result, DHS may have admitted or paroled individuals into the United States who pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities," the report continued.

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People board a Qatar Airways aircraft at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Tens of thousands of Afghans were evacuated to the U.S. in the wake of the withdrawal and subsequent Taliban takeover of the country in August last year. More than 76,000 Afghans have so far been evacuated and processed into the U.S.

The report outlines a process in which the Pentagon evacuated foreign nationals to "lily pads" — countries such as Germany, Qatar, Spain and Italy, where the Afghans could be temporarily housed before being transferred to the U.S.

Under Operation Allies Welcome (OAW), DHS used humanitarian parole — supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis for reasons of significant public benefit or urgent humanitarian reasons — to quickly process tens of thousands of Afghans into the U.S. By doing so, the administration avoided the special immigrant visa (SIV) process and U.S. refugee admissions process, both of which can take years to complete.

The administration has repeatedly touted a multilayered process to screen, inspect and vet evacuees using biometric and biographical data against multiple databases, including Pentagon, DHS and FBI repositories. However, the audit faulted the process and said that "critical data" was not always available. The report also found that CBP admitted or paroled evacuees "who were not fully vetted" into the U.S.

PENTAGON IG REPORT SAYS 50 AFGHAN EVACUEES BROUGHT TO US HAD 'POTENTIALLY SIGNIFICANT SECURITY CONCERNS'

It attributes the failing to evacuees who did not have sufficient documentation, a lack of standardized policies and a failure to provide a contingency plan for such situations. Officials also attributed issues to time constraints at the "lily pads," which were limited to just days or weeks. Officials also said they had to manually enter data from photographs of handwritten flight manifests.

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The watchdog gives examples of some individuals only having one name, others being assigned a Jan. 1 date of birth, a reliance on translators and other cultural differences and "questionable data" that the report said made it difficult for DHS to vet and screen evacuees. The report said that CBP "could not provide reliable data on evacuees admitted or paroled into the United States" and did not maintain a list of the individuals admitted or paroled into the U.S. without proper identification.

The office of inspector general also cited internal DHS reports that CBP "admitted or paroled dozens of evacuees with derogatory information" into the U.S. It confirmed two cases, including an evacuee who had been broken out of prison by the Taliban in August 2021 — and who has since been removed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

"CBP’s use of incomplete or inaccurate data would not have yielded positive matches from intelligence databases if the individuals had derogatory records under a different name or DOB," the report says. "Therefore, DHS and CBP cannot be sure they properly screened, vetted, and inspected all evacuees. We found they paroled at least two individuals into the United States who may have posed a risk to national security and the safety of local communities and may have admitted or paroled more individuals of concern."

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The report recommends that CBP ensures that established vetting processes are carried out and that it identify evacuees who are in the U.S., providing evidence of full screening and vetting. It also calls for a "comprehensive contingency plan" for future situations.

DHS pushed back against the report, defending what it described as an "unprecedented whole-of-government effort" and blaming the OIG for failing to acknowledge what it said was an "interagency and multilayered vetting process" that is ongoing with recurrent vetting. As a result, it said, CBP vetting was only one part of the screening process.

"The rigorous and multi-layered screening and vetting process established by the U.S. government begins overseas and is conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism officials from across the U.S. Government — including from the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and State; Federal Bureau of Investigation; National Counterterrorism Center; and other Intelligence Community partners — for all Afghan nationals arriving in the United States through OAW. Afghan nationals who did not clear these checks were not permitted to travel to the United States as part of OAW," DHS said in a statement.

In a response, included in the report, the agency also challenged the report’s finding that it paroled individuals with derogatory information on their records, saying that they were cleared at time of travel and that new derogatory information came to light after parole — at which point officials took the appropriate action.

"This is indicative of a vetting system that works as designed," the response said, claiming that "all Afghan nationals were screened, vetted and inspected prior to parole into the United States."

The OIG was not convinced about DHS’ response: "Although the Department asserted it provided sufficient evidence that all individuals were properly screened, vetted, and inspected, we could not confirm this assertion and reported data inaccuracies," the inspector general said.

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The OIG report marks the latest flashpoint of concern over the mass parole of Afghans into the U.S. over the last year. A Pentagon inspector general report in February revealed that at least 50 evacuees were brought to the U.S. whose information indicated "potentially serious security concerns" and that officials were unable to locate dozens with derogatory information.

Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., revealed that a whistleblower had said that 324 individuals had entered with derogatory information. FBI Director Christopher Wray said that "there are a number of individuals through our joint-terrorism task forces that we are actively trying to investigate as a result."

"This was a massive number of people to be vetting in an extraordinarily short period of time," he said, defending the vetting process. "And, inevitably, it raises concerns."

Fox News' Pat Ward contributed to this report.