Staff Reports
The Afghanistan withdrawal in August 2021 is now remembered as a debacle of epic proportions, but the real kicker is how the Biden administration handled the aftermath. Thousands of Afghans were evacuated, many without any vetting, while American citizens and Afghan allies who served alongside U.S. forces were left to fend for themselves. It’s a classic tale of priorities skewed beyond belief—get those planes off the ground, even if it meant packing them full of potentially dangerous individuals.
In the midst of this chaos, the White House provided assurances that every Afghan arriving on U.S. soil would be thoroughly vetted. In September 2021, the then-press Secretary confidently stated that no one would enter the country without passing a rigorous screening process. But as the saying goes, the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. Who would have guessed that a government “assurance” could be as sturdy as a paper mache castle?
After botching the Afghanistan withdrawal, Harris-Biden paroled 76,000 Afghans into the U.S.
This is the same admin that proudly reversed effective border/immigration policies on Day 1.
Did anyone seriously think they would sufficiently vet 76,000 Afghans? https://t.co/tEltHL93EZ
— Rep. Eli Crane (@RepEliCrane) October 9, 2024
Fast forward to recent events, and it seems those reassurances were about as credible as a climate alarmist’s prediction. The Department of Justice recently announced the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, a 27-year-old Afghan national residing in Oklahoma City. Apparently, Tawhedi stockpiled weapons and was plotting to carry out a horrific attack inspired by ISIS on Election Day. Talk about a failed vetting process; this was a perfect example of how letting folks in without proper scrutiny can backfire spectacularly.
In total, the Biden administration paroled a staggering 77,000 Afghans into the United States post-withdrawal, but not without consequences. According to a Defense Department Inspector General report, these evacuees were not properly vetted. The report detailed a clumsy process where critical data from the Department of Defense wasn’t made available to Customs and Border Protection for screening, effectively playing a game of “find the needle in a haystack” without any hay and no needle.
Experts have been sounding the alarm for years about this mishandling of evacuees. Senators Lindsey Graham and Chuck Grassley have highlighted the gaps left open by this shoddy vetting process. Even former intelligence officials have chimed in to point out the chaos, suggesting that gut feelings were being favored over solid documentation. Naturally, the Biden administration has been mum on the serious implications of Tawhedi’s arrest, perhaps too busy crafting a narrative on their “successful” evacuation strategy.
The American public deserves to know the truth: was this a simple case of incompetence, or are there deeper concerns about national security and public safety? Given the Administration’s track record, the latter seems more plausible. The implications of letting unvetted individuals into the country couldn’t be clearer, yet the lessons remain unlearned.
