Operation Allies Welcome — the Biden administration’s airlift of some 90,000 Afghans into the U.S. — is looking more like Operation All Welcome.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this week backed off earlier assurances that evacuees had been properly vetted before entering this country. Testifying at the Senate Judiciary Committee, Mayorkas admitted that he doesn't know how many had been screened.
Nonetheless, the secretary persists in hailing the Afghan evacuation as the "most successful" in American history. That brag is right up there with his risible assertion that the southern border is “closed.”
After witnessing Mayorkas’ verbal gymnastics on Capitol Hill, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., recalled that the 9/11 Commission recommended nearly 20 years ago that refugees be interviewed before coming to this country: “Secretary Mayorkas admitted today that the Biden administration has gutted this procedure and is not interviewing all Afghan evacuees before they’re brought to USA — not even trying.”
But it’s full-speed ahead at DHS. On Nov. 8, the agency announced that all of the Afghan arrivals will be given work permits without the customary fees and receive “streamlined processing,” meaning they jump to the front of the line.
Some Afghans were a part of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, a pathway to citizenship for those who worked for the U.S. military or intelligence services.
Yet the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) found that only 3% of those brought stateside were SIV holders or applicants. The vast majority had nothing to do with assisting the U.S.
As a consequence of loose or nonexistent vetting, some unsavory characters are on America’s streets committing crimes. Among them: Zabihullah Mohmand, an unvetted Afghan who was charged last month with raping an 18-year-old girl in Montana. Incredibly, DHS hasn’t even revoked Mohmand’s expedited work permit.
In the chaotic evacuations from Kabul, older men were admitted with young girls they claimed as “brides” or otherwise sexually abused. A U.S. government document revealed that Afghan girls at a transit site in Abu Dhabi alleged they were raped by older men and forced to marry in order to escape their war-torn country.
While child marriage is not uncommon in Afghanistan, the U.S. has strict policies against human trafficking that include prosecution of offenders. Yet no prosecutions have been forthcoming.
This is what happens when proper screening procedures are jettisoned to juice “humanitarian” numbers and prop up a “success” narrative. Meantime, and contrary to administration assurances, Americans have been left behind in Afghanistan.
Such failures must not be compounded by ignoring the clear and present dangers of an ill-conceived resettlement policy.
But as Mayorkas & Co. pat themselves on the back, don’t bet on DHS expending much effort to deport bad actors back to Afghanistan or any other country.
Instead, DHS has begun posting daily “promoted” (paid) tweets about how it is “helping to support the resettlement of vulnerable Afghans across America.” Public response has been less than enthusiastic, with one representative commenter riposting, “How about you ‘resettle’ homeless veterans already here?”
Robert Law at the Center for Immigration Studies plausibly predicts that the White House will double down on its problem-plagued program. “Afghanistan will receive a Temporary Protected Status (TPS) designation, essentially ensuring this population remains indefinitely in the country,” he forecasts. Don’t bet against it.
Operation Allies Welcome is yet another subversion of immigration law and national security by this feckless, open-borders administration. Chalk it up as an ugly win for Team Biden, with untold costs to America.
Bob Dane is executive director of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in Washington, D.C. Read more here.