▶ 0:17:07>> >> good afternoon, everyone. I want to thank chairman grassley for allowing senator hawley and myself to cochair this hearing designed to examine the failures of the biden administration's operation allies welcome parole program.
▶ 0:17:31After the disastrous withdrawal from afghanistan in 2021 that led to kabul falling to the taliban, the biden administration carried out a haphazard evacuation and parole of more than 70,000 afghan nationals into the united states. We will talk more about the importance of parole and its unique meaning within the immigration laws.
▶ 0:17:52But many of the 70,000 afghan nationals paroled in the united states were unvented and allowed to travel through the united states, even when we had derogatory information or concerns about them.
▶ 0:18:09On november 26, one of these afghan nationals, a man named -- I'm going to butcher his name -- carried out an ambush style shooting against our national guard service members in the nation's capital. One of them was killed. Sarah beckstrom.
▶ 0:18:30This tragic incident first lays bare the obvious question, how did this murderer come to be let in the united states in the first place? Secondly, how do we know there are no other such afghan nationals in the united states who might carry out another similar attack? To answer these questions, let's take a brief walk back in history to the 9/11 world trade center attacks in 2001.
▶ 0:19:00In two thousand four, the 9/11 commission issued its final report noting that america remains at risk due to gaps in our nation's overall security apparatus, especially with regard to the vetting of foreign nationals. As well as information sharing and communications amongst of the top law enforcement agencies and the intel community. Since 2001, many improvements have been made. But america remains at risk.
▶ 0:19:29During its first administration, president trump heeded the recommendations of the 9/11 commission and imposed enhanced vetting requirements on aliens seeking to enter the U.S. but enhanced vetting for aliens and increased coordination between government entities to assess an individual's risk to the united states yields little results if the subsequent president and administration deliberately choose to ignore these effective measures.
▶ 0:20:00President biden made this choice of the moment he took office in 2021. He revoked each and every one of president trump's executive orders and proclamations requiring enhanced vetting of aliens. Similarly, president biden revoked an assessment of the security apparatuses of countries around the globe who had nationals seeking to enter the united states.
▶ 0:20:26But the bigger blunder came in able of 2021 when president biden charged ahead with the announcement that the united states would withdraw from afghanistan by 911, 2021. During his first administration, president trump created a strategy for an effective drawdown in afghanistan based on input from military leaders on the ground.
▶ 0:20:51President biden chose to ignore that strategy, presumably to land another rebuke of president trump's policies or to make a political point. Whether president biden rushed forward with full knowledge and deliberation, or was wholly unaware of what was orchestrated by a staff under him, is a question best left for another day and another hearing. But one thing is clear.
▶ 0:21:17Responsibility for the failures with the withdrawal and evacuation from afghanistan lies squarely at the feet of the biden administration. Not one of the agencies during his tenure in office were prepared for the speed with which kabul fell. Nor were they ready for the volume of afghans who had rushed to the embassy and airport seeking to leave afghanistan.
▶ 0:21:44Neither the biden state department, the department of defense, nor the department of homeland security had a proper plan in place. They did not have enough information on the number of people who needed to be evacuated, let alone who most of these people were. Especially if they were not directly associated with the embassy.
▶ 0:22:08There were no policies and procedures in place it is made up policies and procedures on the fly. On an ad hoc basis. One stated uniformly -- informally that he believed the bombing on august 26, 2021 was a direct result to have the right
▶ 0:22:39Information about the anticipated volume of who should be considered vulnerable and in need of evacuation. Let me say that again. A deputy inspector general said the bombing at abbey gate on august 20 6, 2020 one, which killed 13 american service members, was a direct result of the failures of the biden administration. The airlift from afghanistan was the largest in U.S. history.
▶ 0:23:11The department of defense moved more than 120 afghan nationals out of afghanistan in 17 days. One of these nationals were taken to transit sites outside of afghanistan.
▶ 0:23:29Once they were, in qatar, bahrain, kuwait, italy, and germany, the department generally only had between 10 to 14 days to transport them from those countries to the united states. The speed and lack of coordination of the withdrawal was far from the only problem. The process by which massive numbers of these foreign nationals was fitted had brought to the united states was also filled with flaws.
▶ 0:24:02Let me turn the operation ally's welcome. The young man who committed this heinous attack against the national guard service members on november 26 was not the recipient of a congressionally passed special immigrant visa program. Rather, he entered the country through operation allies welcome parole program. You heard me use that term before, and I use it again. Under this parole program, -- the perl program was created as an end run around congress.
▶ 0:24:35The biden administration in the process let in tens of thousands of unvented afghans into the country. These individuals had no honorable military service or sacrifice that warranted special treatment. In fact, most of them had no immigration status at all. Which is why they were admitted under this authority known as parole. When we talk about parole, it is not what most of us think about in the criminal law context.
▶ 0:25:06It is where folks under U.S. immigration law, parole is somewhat an easy pass, like speeding through a toll booth. If we consider the definition of the word, it becomes clear how foolish the biden administration's actions were. The U.S. immigration and citizenship and immigration services defines the word parole as a discretionary decision to allow an admissible aliens who are not admitted to the united states to be physically present in the united states.
▶ 0:25:38Or to put it more singly, parole as a form of entry specifically for people who might otherwise be inadmissible. We can put these definitions together in this chart. In other words, parole authorizes the department of homeland security secretary to allow people in our country who otherwise would not be allowed in.
▶ 0:26:03This discretionary immigration authority was only supposed to be used on a case-by-case basis for exceedingly rare and extreme circumstances. Under operation allies welcome, president biden essentially gave an easy pass to hundreds of thousands of aliens who otherwise were not eligible to come, or who were not eligible to come, but for this discretionary issue on parole.
▶ 0:26:30The biden administration used parole to allow aliens in the country were virtually unknown, except for the information they provided to us about themselves. One thing that struck me after I received several briefings on this parole program was how the security vetting process was often based on information that was not accurate, and in many cases was either incomplete, missing, or completely fabricated.
▶ 0:26:59In other situations, agencies relied on records that were inaccurate, or missing biographical data like the person's name or date of birth. One state department general audit highlighted -- official's comments about the high level of fraud in afghanistan compared to other countries. Remember that afghanistan has been run by a terrorist organization for multiple periods of time throughout its history.
▶ 0:27:29Given the fact and the fact this government controls many of the records from that country, can we ever truly rely on any document issued by afghanistan to confirm any afghan nationalist who they claim to be? Even more disturbing were the findings from the department of homeland security inspector general. That some afghan parolees make it into the U.S., even though they have not actually completed their vetting protocols.
▶ 0:27:58At least 1300 afghan nationals were allowed to travel and enter the united states before we even collected their biometrics, fingerprints, photograph, in order to run background checks for the various government databases. At the end of the day, the biden administration allowed more than 70,000 afghan nationals in the united states using this claim parole authority.
▶ 0:28:25And once these folks were here, the agency simply lost track of them. -- prioritized the vetting of all aliens outside the country and currently inside the country, including parolees.
▶ 0:28:52According to the director of national intelligence, tulsi gabbard, and the national counterterrorism center director , more than 70,000 afghan parolees, president biden allowed into the country through operation allies welcome. 18,000 of them were known or suspected terrorists.
▶ 0:29:15The nctc has identified 2000 individuals with ties to terrorist organizations and is working with the fbi on their cases. -- ensure america has an effective security apparatus and vetting process outside and inside the united states.
▶ 0:29:43Until that happens, we can't give the american public a 100% guarantee, which they are entitled to, that another attack will not occur. Americans deserve to live free from fear with ties to terrorist organizations are not -- are not wrong about our country. We cannot bring back U.S. army specialist sarah beckstrom.
▶ 0:30:11But we can and will do everything in our power to convince such a horrible incident from occurring again. Accountability starts today with this hearing. I'm looking forward to hearing from our witnesses. At this point, let me yield to senator hawley for his opening statement as cochair of the hearing and I will recognize senator padilla and senator durbin. >> thank you very much for holding this hearing.
▶ 0:30:40It is a timely hearing on a vital matter. I would say what happened in the waning days of the afghanistan operation, the biden administration disastrous withdrawal, it is well documented. The fact there was no vetting properly done, no interviews conducted that were standard, the normal background checks were waived.
▶ 0:31:03We will see today in a little bit, our witnesses from the inspectors general and others, the standard vetting procedures in place for operations like this were completely disregarded. We are living down with the consequences since the people admitted into the country, we have no idea of their background, the potential terrorist connections. We have no idea where they are or what they are doing. Who they are connected with.
▶ 0:31:31We have seen what some of them are capable of, just a short while ago with the guardsmen the senator cornyn recognized. I think we will hear more than that today. Here is the additional information, the shocking information we will find.
▶ 0:31:49That this congress which appropriated 1.5 billion dollars for this operation of president biden the admittance of all of these refugees and parolees, supposed supervision, 1.5 billion dollars of that money, tens of millions of dollars went to pro-terrorist organizations in this country. They were supposed to help monitor these refugees and move them along the parole system, but in fact took the money and did who knows what with it.
▶ 0:32:19A story we have seen unfold before our very eyes in minnesota. Now we are going to find it happened in this case in this instance in multiple states, tens of millions of taxpayer dollars going to organizations that support hamas, that support terrorism, that praise of the attacks of october the seventh, that have consistently defended for terrorist attacks around the nation, around the world.
▶ 0:32:48That got money from our own government in order to participate in this boondoggle. I think we need an accounting of where that money has gone to, how it has been spent, and frankly we need to get it back. I hope today's hearing will begin to shed light on what has happened. The corruption that is still going on. The tens of millions or more of taxpayer dollars that have been misspent, misappropriated, and misused.
▶ 0:33:17I would just say I think it is long past time for some accountability. I think we will take a step forward for that today. >> good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. Senator cornyn for convening this timely discussion. So I want to be clear.
▶ 0:33:44The violence that unfolded blocks from the white house was heartbreaking. Two members of the west virginia national guard who signed up to serve our country were targeted in our nations capital. I think I speak for all of us, both sides of the aisle when I say our hearts are with the families in the family of specialist sarah beckstrom.
▶ 0:34:08That we continue to pray for staff sergeant wilson's recovery and hearken to hear the progress he's made. But the response to the horrific ambush shouldn't be to attack one another or seek to further divide our country. It should be one where we come together and doubled down on the values -- volumes that make it truly great.
▶ 0:34:36Values of service, community, diversity, and opportunity. Instead we are seeing from members of the trump administration, even some of my colleagues in the senate, a response that is truly repulsive , exploiting a tragedy for political gain. Even when it means turning their backs on many of the afghan allies who saved american lives overseas.
▶ 0:35:05In preparing for today, while office heard from veterans who shared stories of the heroism and solidarity of many afghans who served alongside them and ask that we not condemn the many for the inexcusable act of one person. I know there's a number of veterans here in the audience today. Could the veterans in the battle buddies in the audience stand for a moment?
▶ 0:35:38[applause] thank you. And we thank you for your service and for being here today to support shoulder to shoulder with all american service members. I set the record straight about what is really happening.
▶ 0:36:06Across the nearly 200 thousand who resettled in america, each and every afghan refugee had to complete multiple rounds of extensive vetting. Not just before entering our country, but even after they arrive.
▶ 0:36:25I'm not going to say the withdrawal -- is perfect, but under incredibly difficult circumstances, the united states government came together to respond so that we would not leave our allies behind. It involved numerous agencies from the intelligence community, the state department, health and human services, the fbi, the department of homeland security, including customs and border protection.
▶ 0:36:54Together they set vetting at the military bases where people were sent before being allowed to come to the U.S. here is something my republican colleagues will not tell you. If someone did not pass vetting there, they did not leave those bases to enter the united states.
▶ 0:37:14We also know vetting took place at safe haven military bases here in the united states, and that is all before the vetting that takes place when someone goes to the immigration system with the U.S. citizenship and immigration services. And in the case of the cia zero unit fighters, the vetting went even further because afghans were vetted by the intelligence community.
▶ 0:37:45Before they even join the unit. So to suggest afghan refugees are not vetted early is a pure fabrication to fit a tragic act of violence into a false narrative by this administration. And sure enough, in the case of the shooter from last fall, it is clear that this was not a failure of vetting. It was a failure of counterterrorism.
▶ 0:38:16When professionals diverted from critical missions to instead carry out mass deportations. It was a failure to support a veteran by pulling back resources that normally support the resettlement process. Let me be more specific about this case. Reports indicate long before november 26, he was displaying an alarming change in behavior. This is public.
▶ 0:38:44He was isolating himself for long periods in a dark bedroom. Retreating from his english classes, his job, his family. All to set out on solo road trips. A family member of his reached out to the authorities to request a move citing his isolation and fear for his safety. After being assaulted in requiring hospital care.
▶ 0:39:12He reportedly even reached out to the group chat for zero unit veterans asking for help. But it went unanswered. To the combined failure of counterterrorism teams, to intervene on these clear red flags, and the failure of a system that the way he access to case management and mental health supports absolutely
▶ 0:39:43Contributed to the horrific tragedy that unfolded in the nation's capital just before thanksgiving. The investigation into the shooting is ongoing and will be irresponsible for us to speculate about cause, we cannot say for certain it did not occur because he was not vetted. But also another point as I close.
▶ 0:40:11For nearly two decades, american service members relied on our afghan allies and some of the most dangerous situations imaginable. On the battlefield, as interpreters, and as members of the cia zero units. Let's make no mistake. They are veterans of america's war in afghanistan.
▶ 0:40:33I want to take a moment to thank the chairman of the immigration subcommittee for his past consistent not only welcoming them to texas, but by joining me and introducing and passing the bill to speed up the immigration process for afghan interpreters. Urging us all to make sure these heroes are able to efficiently immigrate to the united states to start a new life.
▶ 0:41:05I could not agree more. The idea that today would punish all afghan allies or all immigrants for that matter for the sins -- sins of one is outrageous. But sadly that is exactly what has happened. I urge all to reject that kind of scapegoating and cynical politics at the sensitive moment for our nation. Thank you.
▶ 0:41:32>> since the ranking member manchin me by name, or identified me as such, I would reiterate the fact the shooter in west virginia and tens of thousands of others did not come in through any congressionally passed legislation, but rather through this claim of parole authority which we would hear more of in a moment. That is significant.
▶ 0:41:57I would say finally all of us were misled by the biden administration that they would protect the safety of the american people, first and foremost by properly vetting every alien that was admitted into the country. Obviously they misrepresented that to us. We relied upon it. I guess you can say shame on us for believing the vine -- biden administration actually do their job.
▶ 0:42:27Unfortunately I neglected to recognize the chairman of the full committee without whom this hearing would not be possible, so I will turn to him and ask if he has the opening statement he would like to make. I'm the chairman of the immigration subcommittee. I will say who goes next, I will respect that decision. Thank you, senator durbin.
▶ 0:42:54>> chairman cornyn, you want to acknowledge as others already have the veterans who are here today and all veterans who served our country so well? The hearing is scheduled in the aftermath of a horrific tragedy on november 26 when a gunman ambushed two national guard members in washington. I offer my deepest condolences to the family specials who lost her life in the attack and keeping andrew wolfe in my thought is I'm sure many are.
▶ 0:43:24At the outset I want to note my disappointment there are no witnesses here today representing the executive branch agencies responsible for vetting immigrants. There are many questions we would ask them, why did the trump administration grand asylum last year to the shooter just months before this deadly attack?
▶ 0:43:48We have witnesses from several inspector general's office is president trump illegally fired the heads of those offices. And I'm concerned -- concerned they may not be reluctant to criticize trump administration action. Unfortunately, the administration uses the heinous actions of one person an entire community as a threat to america.
▶ 0:44:12Two days before the tragedy, the administration ordered a review of all refugees in the united states under the previous president requiring a reinterview of nearly 200,000 people. After the shooting, the trump administration announced a flurry of additional management -- measures to crack down illegal immigrants.
▶ 0:44:36All -- they halted all asylum decisions and re-examined green cards for immigrants from 89 countries the president has deemed countries of concern, including afghanistan. The administration also began canceling naturalization interviews and ceremonies based on an individual's country of origin and suspended visa and immigration processing for all from afghanistan.
▶ 0:45:01Listen to a chris purdy, a veteran who served in iraq, said about trump administration policies. "tragedy should not be use to flatten complex realities, erase years of lifesaving work, or cast suspicion on the entire community that stood shoulder to shoulder with the united states in our longest war." afghan allies are extensively vetted population. They were vetted in afghanistan before they were hired to work to stand beside and help protect our troops.
▶ 0:45:32They were vetted again seeking safety in the united states. Sometimes it went on for months and longer. After rigorous, recurring process involving multiple federal agencies, these outlays served alongside american service members through two decades of war. They risked their lives in many gave their lives to support our troops.
▶ 0:45:57So what happened to these allies, these friends who stood behind us when they needed our support, let's look at the veterans for that perspective. The iraq and afghan veterans conducted a survey last fall. More than 70% of the respondents disagreed with the following statement. Since 2001, the U.S. has done enough to support our afghan allies. It is obvious to those who served that we owe so much more to these outlays.
▶ 0:46:26When asked about the detention of afghans going through the immigration process, 70% of respondents agreed the detentions brought a deep sense of personal shame or moral injury. They know that we treated them badly. Our service members need to know when they are in the line of fire, depending on foreign allies, to protect their lives, that the united states will stand by those allies after the confrontation.
▶ 0:46:54Who will put their lives on the line for service members in the next war after watching our treatment of afghan allies that were detained and deported to a country where they can be imprisoned or killed for their work with us? Americans better for the service members having returned home. And better for their afghan allies. It is time for us to stand behind those who put their lives on the line for our service members. Thank you, Mr. chairman. >> senator grassley.
▶ 0:47:26>> I want to thank senator cornyn and senator hawley for their leadership and coordinating this joint subcommittee hearing. Today's hearing follows and afghan national's vial attack on two national guardsmen, which killed sarah beckstrom and andrew wolfe was critically wounded. We are forever grateful for these gardens paved -- guardsmen -- guardsmen's bravery.
▶ 0:47:56In 2024, law enforcement arrested and afghan national affiliated with isis who planned to conduct a terror attack on election day. Just days after sarah beckstrom and andrew wolfe were attacked, law enforcement arrested another afghan national in texas who posted online threats to bomb and kill americans.
▶ 0:48:21The last administration failed to enforce immigration laws and to appropriately event afghans that they brought to the united states. President biden and vice president harris and their administration botched withdrawal from afghanistan, stood up a massive immigration parole program, operation allies welcome.
▶ 0:48:53A staggering 70,000 plus afghan parolees entered the united states through the program. Immigration parole's intent is careful consideration on an individual case-by-case basis. President biden and sec.
▶ 0:49:13Mayorkas, however, failed to enforce immigration laws and granted parole to a large swath of folks at the border and elsewhere, including afghan evacuees. Many of whom didn't even serve alongside U.S. forces in afghanistan.
▶ 0:49:34The biden-harris administration invited other afghans in the united states as a special part of special immigrant visa program. By 2022, some in congress wanted to create a pathway for permanency for tens of thousands of afghans, both those issued in siv and those parole into the united states.
▶ 0:50:02The scope of these efforts continues to go far beyond those who dutifully served alongside our troops and aided in their mission. Since 2021, I have warned the biden administration, my congressional colleagues, and the american public about the failure to vet afghan evacuees. For years, the biden administration had hidden known vetting vulnerabilities from the people.
▶ 0:50:30The vulnerable inspector general's released reports detailing the biden-harris administration's stark vetting failures. Initially, the biden administration failed to vet evacuees against all available defense department tactical data prior to being paroled.
▶ 0:50:54Even with all of the databases searched, there is arguably -- there will arguably never be a full vetting. The afghan government national local is organized and diligent. If our government database doesn't possess all known security risk of individuals running names, the database will not do much good.
▶ 0:51:25Last year on september 9, the dhs secretary told my office as of august 12, 20 25,000 of operation go out -- potential national security risk.
▶ 0:51:44Clearly problems persist in our own backyard, more recently on january 7 of this year, I wrote to the department of justice, fbi, department of homeland security, state department cia, and the department of defense. In that letter I made public new records.
▶ 0:52:07Those records show the biden state department had recommended a special visa, immigration visa for afghan nationals charged with shooting the national guardsmen. According to the biden state department, the terrorist pose no threat to national security. Last year, I also brought the U.S. cis and fbi personnel for bipartisan briefing as part of my oversight.
▶ 0:52:38The briefings further discussed the inherent failure in the vetting system of the previous administration. The american people deserve to know the information that the members during these hearings, and would ask to declassify certain information. Still today, some proposals asked congress to simply rubberstamp these abuses of parole.
▶ 0:53:04Instead of using more proper pathways like refugee admission program, the biden-harris administration took drastic shortcuts and america is less safe as a result. Carving out exceptions, pushing poorly vented parolees to the front of the line is not the answer. Addressing the executive branch, parole is. That is why I reintroduced my immigration parole reform act.
▶ 0:53:40Similarly, recent proposals to expand the program to do little to address the thousands already here who weren't adequately vetted. Thankfully, president trump's swish work to protect the american people and that those coming in who are intending to remain is a welcome course of correction. I look forward to this hearing on what happened, what went wrong, and how this administration can address this issue moving ahead.
▶ 0:54:13Again, I thank my subcommittee chairman for their work on this hearing. >> before I turn to the witnesses, I asked senator coons be allowed to make opening remarks. There have been three republican statements, a third democratic statement is in order. This committee has always practiced parity. >> senator cruz is more likely than you this time to make a statement.
▶ 0:54:41Two opening statements, and the chairman who without assistance the hearing would not be possible, was of course allowed to make an opening statement to proceed the hearing. At this time I would ask unanimous consent to introduce the following documents -- if you will wait until I make my request.
▶ 0:55:05I ask unanimous consent to introduce the following documents into the record, december 3, 2020 five by press release from the department of homeless security titled miles from nation's capital, ice arrest isis-k afghan terrorist released into the U.S. under biden's operation allies.
▶ 0:55:26Secondly, december 4 20 25 dhs release titled ice arrest criminal aliens from afghanistan into our country by the biden administration. Finally, a january 14th, 2026 statement, president and federal for numbers usa outlining the danger to america's national security and public safety when the biden administration released on vetted afghan nationals into the united states through parole and listing some
▶ 0:55:58Of the afghan nationals who attempted to commit terrorist attacks on U.S. soil as well as other criminal afghan nationals. Without objection, those will be admitted as part of the record. >> if I could also enter into the record a number of letters. I would like to submit a letter from afghan anti-vax, an organization that has helped thousands of afghans who supported U.S.
▶ 0:56:23Troops to get to -- directly with our troops in afghanistan. A letter from hundreds of afghans stranded in qatar, 200 members of the afghan air force, from a retired U.S. air force captain, each of these a testament to the harm this administration's current policies are causing to those who served alongside us.
▶ 0:56:51Just this past week I sat with an afghan who spent eight years fighting alongside our special forces. Someone who has resettled into the U.S., who has been granted asylum, and he and his wife are terrified they will be picked up and returned to face the taliban who did not just threaten his life, but murdered a member of his immediate family as retribution for his brave and dedicated service. He saved the lives of two american soldiers in a firefight.
▶ 0:57:22We should not turn our backs on folks like this who stood with us. I will close as afghan heat has said, no greater threat to the future of U.S. military operations in the perception america abandons its partners once the shooting stops. I believe the taliban is cheering what is happening today and those who are being forced back to afghanistan I think will be an enduring stand on our nation.
▶ 0:57:49>> the public safety of american citizens, where does that fit into our colleagues analysis? Of course, allies who assisted us who were properly vetted and not a threat to public safety are welcome into our country. We want our allies to work with us in future conflicts.
▶ 0:58:11But to let tens of thousands of people into the country on vetted, many of whom did not serve with our united states military, is just flat a responsible. It puts public safety of the american citizens at risk. For this side of the aisle, that is a nonnegotiable requirement. At this time I want to introduce -- >> Mr. chairman -- >> performing the duties of inspector general for the U.S. department of state. I want to thank Mr.
▶ 0:58:39Baker, who is currently serving as senior official performing the duties of inspector general at the state department. He needs a global workforce whose mission is to prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse and promote efficiency in the program and operations of the department in the U.S. agency for global media. A seasoned senior executive with more than two decades of oversight experience, Mr.
▶ 0:59:07Baker previously led more than 80 inspections and evaluations. Improving the efficiency of the department operations while identifying hundreds of millions of dollars of findings with monetary benefit to american taxpayers.
▶ 0:59:23Before this current position, he was assistant inspector general for inspections where he led the oig worldwide program to conduct independent assessment of overseas post spearheading efforts for -- to streamline the inspection process through data automation, risk analysis, and dynamic planning to address emerging oversight challenges in ukraine, iraq, afghanistan, and israel.
▶ 0:59:51Craig adelman is deputy inspector for audits of the office of inspector general for the department of homeland security. In this role he receives the audit functions of the office of inspector general which conducts independent performance and financial audits of dhs programs and operations to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and accountability.
▶ 1:00:15Before becoming deputy id for audits, he worked as senior program analyst for dhs conducting performance audits on information management and related issues. Finally Mr.
▶ 1:00:29Michael rourke on april 1, 2019, the department of defense inspector general received an evaluation component , intelligence special program assessments, policy and oversight, and special plans and operations merged into the evaluations component. He was named as deputy inspector general for this new component.
▶ 1:00:54He has served with the department of defense as inspector general since june 2000 and a variety of staff and leadership positions, becoming a member of the senior executive service on september 21. He obtained his undergraduate degree in business from virginia tech and his masters in policy management from georgetown university.
▶ 1:01:20In 2004 he completed a detailed assignment to the iraq coalition provisional authority inspector general. Thank you all for appearing today. If you would please rise so I can administer the oh three. >> do you confirm the consent and turn to the record the documents you referenced? >> raise your right hand and repeat after me. I solemnly swear that I will tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me god. And all of the nurses said yes.
▶ 1:01:54I'm sorry, was there additional records? >> the documents referenced by senator coons and those entered into the record -- without objection. I beg your pardon. Let me turn to senator hawley to begin our questioning. Thank you all for being here. >> thank you very much. Thanks to the witnesses for being here. If I can start with Mr. adelman.
▶ 1:02:17You are the deputy inspector general charged with overseeing the afghan parolee program, correct? >> correct. >> in 2022, your office found president biden's dhs allowed some afghans into the country before they were fully vetted, including one who had been liberated from prison by the taliban. Correct? I think we will see this exhibit open the side of my shoulder. I want to read directly from your report. Some evacuees were allowed into the U.S. were not fully vetted.
▶ 1:02:49One active evacuee who had been liberated from prison by the taliban. Cbp paroled another evacuee who posed to security concerns. Early reports by the inspectors general idea dod and fbi found over 50 known or suspected terrorist had entered the U.S. as a result of the biden administration screening or lack thereof. The director of national intelligence said 2000 afghans may have ties to terrorism.
▶ 1:03:20That is a very big number. I want to talk about how this happened and if I can get your help doing that. Let me start with testimony of the full committee, the judiciary committee. Recently received. In 2020 one, then dhs secretary testified the administration had a rigorous vetting process in place. I think we have a quote of his.
▶ 1:03:46"we have taken steps to make sure the vetting program is indeed rigorous." this may have been in response to a question from me. He said indeed the vetting to deviate from normal refugee screening. That was an understatement. He went on to say we have taken steps to make for the program is indeed rigorous. So you investigated the vetting process, did you find the biden administration dhs at a formal vetting process in place that they followed carefully?
▶ 1:04:18>> a question for the chairman, are we intentionally bypassing opening statements by the witnesses -- >> we will come back to opening statements after senator hawley's through. >> the department did not have a formal process at the start of the oa w. >> can you say that one more time? >> the department cannot provide us with a formal screening of vetting process at the start of the oh aw process. >> the department did not have a formal screening and vetting process in place.
▶ 1:04:49The most the biden administration did according to your investigation was to run afghans biographic information. Their names and dates of birth, other biographical information, they may have supplied, correct? >> that is correct, until december of 2021 when they began requiring in-person interviews. >> until that time for the first several months, they were relying on biographic information supplied by the afghans as well as biometrics?
▶ 1:05:17Your office found that approach was severely flawed. Partly because many afghans did not know their birthdates dates. Correct? Explain this. >> that is correct. There was missing information from the oh aw population, including the first, last names, and date of birth. 11,000 to 12,000 did not know their date of birth. >> 11 thousand and 12,000 -- which is a cultural thing. It presents an issue for us when doing vetting.
▶ 1:05:4811,000 or 12,000 admitted whom we did not even have their date of birth? That is pretty extraordinary. Did the biden administration require afghans to show identification at ports of entry? >> the department requested identification, but not all afghans had formal identification such as a passport. We found over 30,000 did not have formal identification. >> can you say that number one more time? How many? >> I believe the number is 36,000.
▶ 1:06:18>> 36,000 who could not show identification at a port of entry. Cbp's concept of operations allowed its officers to embitter roll evacuees without documents, 36,000 of them. It is astounding.
▶ 1:06:35My understanding is to do the bare-bones background checks actually performed, the biden dhs sent a list of afghans to the department of defense and the fbi, a process that would normally take months. Would it surprise you to hear the doj inspector general found the list of evacuees was submitted to the fbi via email and the fbi was given two hours to respond? >> I can't confirm that.
▶ 1:07:03But there is very limited time to conduct the screening and vetting of those evacuees. >> here is the quote, "the odeon cbp created lists of afghan evacuees were submitted to the fbi via email with only two hours to respond. Let me ask you finally and then my time is about expired, when it comes to interviews, normally refugees are required to attend an in person interview. Did dhs systematically interviewed evacuees before they were admitted?
▶ 1:07:36>> no. >> did they systematically conduct mental health screenings? >> not that I'm aware of. >> all of the above should have been done. The fact tens of thousands were admitted without so much as an id or a birth date, there is really no surprise where we are where we are. >> let's go back and allow the witnesses to make an opening statement before further questioning, Mr. adelman, we will recognize you.
▶ 1:08:05>> good afternoon, thank you, ranking members and members of the subcommittees. Thank you for inviting me to discuss the department of homeland security office of inspector general critical oversight ward of the federal government's efforts to resettle afghans under operation allies welcome. In the summer of 2021, the U.S. withdrew military and diplomatic personnel from afghanistan.
▶ 1:08:28The prior administration launched operation allies welcome and shortly thereafter, directed the secretary of homeland security to lead interagency efforts known as operation allies welcome to help resettle vulnerable afghan nationals. More than 77,000 afghan nationals were paroled into the united states between july 2021 and september 2022. Discretionary and temporary immigration authorities for urging humanitarian reasons or public benefit.
▶ 1:08:57The recent shooting of two national guards members in washington, D.C. allegedly involving afghan national who went through the oh aw sharply focused public attention on how dhs screened and vetted its population. Since 2021, dhs oig has conducted a series of audits and evaluations in which we identified systemic concerns about the department possibility to carry out one of its most fundamental responsibilities.
▶ 1:09:23Ensuring that individuals granted parole are temporary protection in the united states are properly screened, vetted, tracked, and monitored. We've issued several reports since 2022 and we continue to examine the department's performance related 20 aw. By testimony today, focused on issued reports which collectively assess dhs' performance from initial screening and vetting to the ongoing processes for re-vetting and monitoring individuals over time.
▶ 1:09:51Our most consequential audit report, oig 2264 examined dhs' ability to screen, that, and inspect afghan evacuees. We found dhs encountered several obstacles that prevented cbp officers from consistently accessing complete and accurate data when determining evacuees admissibility and parole eligibility. In many cases, critical information such as full names, date of birth, and travel data were missing, incomplete, or unreliable.
▶ 1:10:20We also found cbp permitted at least 35 individuals to travel to the united states without passing biometric and biographic vetting processes. Dhs did not collect full biometrics for nearly 1300 individuals before arrival. Further, cbp parole individuals to determine national security risks which resulted in their subsequent apprehension and removal from the country.
▶ 1:10:44Our more recent work examined the dhs handling of derogatory information about parolees who remained in the country. We found the department uses a fragmented process in which no single component has clear ownership of identifying, resolving, and acting on derogatory information. This meant individuals who denied derogatory information could remain in the U.S. indefinitely without enforcement consequence.
▶ 1:11:10We continued to work in 2024 by examining dhs oversight of parole expiration across multiple humanitarian programs, including oh aw. We found dhs lacked a process to track the end of parole and did not routinely initiate enforcement actions when an individual's parole expired. As a result, dhs did not have insurance and parolees were lawfully present in the U.S. after parole expiration. We've issued 17 recommendations intended to help the department fix these weaknesses.
▶ 1:11:41We recommended dhs assign centralized ownership of vetting resolutions and real-time tracking of parole status. Our findings do not assert better processes could prevent specific incidents. However, current processes for vetting and tracking individuals who enter the U.S. are not sufficiently reliable. Our findings have been consistent.
▶ 1:12:05Dhs was not fully prepared to manage the scale and complexity on the evacuee crisis while maintaining strong national security controls. Through our oversight work on the subject, we identified vulnerabilities to the american public if the department cannot properly screened and that individuals entering the united states, resolve risk indicators are ensure accurate records. Thank you again for the opportunity to testify and I look forward to answering your questions. >> Mr. baker?
▶ 1:12:36>> good morning, chairman cornyn, senator hawley, ranking members and members of the subcommittees. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you. I want to acknowledge the tragic events that brought us here. We remain hopeful for staff sergeant wolf's recovery and are encouraged by reports of his progress. Our deepest symphonies go to his family and the family specialist, whose life was suddenly and tragically taken. The nation mourns her loss.
▶ 1:13:04My remarks will focus on the oversight work of the state department office of inspector general. Particularly work related to the screen, vetting, and relocation of afghan nationals. The work spans multiple years and touches on a range of programs and processes. We've issued a total of 11 reports on the screen, vetting, and relocation of afghans from 2017 to 2024. Afghans have entered the U.S. through three major pathways.
▶ 1:13:31Humanitarian parole refugee status, and the special immigrant visa program. Our office is focused primarily on the afghan siv program which congress created in 2019 to resettle afghans work on behalf of the U.S. government. The siv process included a review of eligibility, a petition phase, and a final visa application.
▶ 1:13:55State department personnel collect applicant biographic and biometric data, submit data for vetting, and conduct in-person interviews. Only after all of these steps were complete is a visa issue. Even after visas issued final admissions determined by the department of homeland security at the port of entry. State oig has identified long-standing challenges with the afghan siv program.
▶ 1:14:20Prior to the evacuation of kabul in august of 2021, the program faced chronic staffing shortages and relied on outdated technology, factors that contributed to a growing backlog of siv visas. During the evacuation, state oig found the lack of reliable data and inconsistent criteria for identifying at-risk afghans severely hampered planning and execution.
▶ 1:14:45After the evacuation, the state department experience an influx of afghan siv applications, greatly expanding the existing backlog to almost 155,000 in december 2022. In response, the department increased staffing, deployed new software tools, and expanded interview locations. We also examined how afghan siv holders fayard after arriving in the united states.
▶ 1:15:13State oig found the vast majority of afghan sag families secured housing and enroll their children in school within 30 days for arrival. However, employment rates were lower than those of other refugee populations and resettlement agencies reported persistent challenges in addressing mental health needs, locating affordable housing and providing language support services. In january 2025 the administration suspended refugee admissions and is not reopened the program to afghans.
▶ 1:15:46In june, the president restricted visa issuance and for afghan nationals except for those issued under the siv program. In november last year the state department expanded that expansion to include afghan siv's. Looking ahead, several siv program areas require attention. Leadership gaps, fragmented information systems, and limited coordinations among agencies continue to hinder the program.
▶ 1:16:12We also have ongoing investigations into potential fraud and are working closely with other government agencies to ensure accountability. We remain committed to ensuring that our oversight leads to meaningful reforms that protect our national security and honor are promised to those who stood with us. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I look forward to your questions.
▶ 1:16:31Chair Cornyn: Thank you.
▶ 1:16:35Mr. Roark: Good afternoon distinguished members of the subcommittees. Thank you for inviting me to discuss your previous oversight work on the dod's supporting role. In june 2021, the dod supported the request for a special immigrant visa applicant processing.
▶ 1:17:03Mr. Roark: Later beginning in august 2021 the dod supported the department of homeland security as the lead agency responsible for biometric screening of afghan evacuees traveling to the U.S. and overseas military locations. Dh etches customs and border protection conducted a portion of the biometric enrollments for afghan evacuees at overseas estate agent bases and stored as collected information in its ident database.
▶ 1:17:29Mr. Roark: The dod completed the remaining enrollments and screened its information against the dod automated biometric information system, or abis. The issue 21 reports related to the dod's support for displaced persons from afghanistan. Today I will discuss two of those reports on the dod is a supporting role in enrolling and screening those displaced persons.
▶ 1:17:53Mr. Roark: In our first report from february 2022, we determined the national counterterrorism center was not using all dod data to vet afghan evacuees prior to their arrival in the U.S.. Specifically the and ctc did not have access to some dod biometric and contextual data in the avis database such as tactical operations, debriefings and reports or fingerprints from improvised explosive device is or access to intelligence
▶ 1:18:23Mr. Roark: Databases used by the dod on a classified network. This occurred because cbp enrollments were forwarded to the nctc by the national targeting center for betting purposes and were compared against the dhs ident data which did not initially include all biometric data in the dod abis database. In addition the army's ground intelligence center had agreements with foreign partners that prohibited sharing some abis dated with U.S. agencies outside the dod.
▶ 1:18:52Mr. Roark: In august of 2021, because all afghan evacuees were not being screened with all available data in the dod's abis database, the army's ground intelligence center took it upon themselves to expand their analytic review of afghan evacuees. By september of 2021, they identified 31 afghans with derogatory information from dod databases who were already in the U.S. by november of 2021, they could identify 50 afghans in the U.S.
▶ 1:19:23Mr. Roark: With potential significant security concerns. Inject notified both the dod and energy -- interagency stakeholders about these. As a result the U.S.-but -- the U.S. faced potential security risks if individuals with security concerns were allowed to stay in the country. In addition the U.S. government can mistakenly grant siv or parolee status to be ineligible he afghan evacuees with these concerns. One of our two recommendation remains unimplemented.
▶ 1:19:54Mr. Roark: Specifically that the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security develop procedures for sharing derogatory information on afghan evacuees with the dod and interagency stakeholders. Our second report from june 2023 determined that dod personnel supported other agency requests christine -- screening afghan evacuees by conducting biometric enrollments of approximately two thirds of all afghan evacuees at the intermediate staging bases overseas, and conducting follow-up counterintelligence screening interviews of afghans
▶ 1:20:24Mr. Roark: Who were identified as a match to the dod biometric watchlist. In addition, the army's inject analyst conducted biometric assessments of all watchlist encounters and biographic analysis of more than 84,000 afghan evacuees records. And sent out rapid notifications to a wide distribution list to identify evacuees who may pose a threat to national security.
▶ 1:20:49Mr. Roark: However, in our report we did note that they did not consistently follow its guidance and procedures when deciding to retain or remove some afghan evacuees from the biometric watchlist. As a result, inject may have removed some afghan identities from the biometric watchlist that should have been retained on the list.
▶ 1:21:09Mr. Roark: This is important because the dhs used the biometric watchlist is one consideration for its screening and vetting analysis to determine whether afghan evacuees should be allowed to travel to the U.S. of our eight recommendations, one remains unimplemented. Specifically, that the under secretary of defense for intelligence should revise or replace dod policy to reflect the transition of responsibilities for the management support and requirements of the dod biometric watchlist.
▶ 1:21:38Mr. Roark: This concludes my statement and I would be happy to answer any questions you have.
▶ 1:21:40Chair Cornyn: Thank you.
▶ 1:21:42Sen. Durbin: I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from then-senator rubio and senator warner to president biden asking him to security safety and security of afghans who worked closely with our intelligence agencies and partners.
▶ 1:21:59Chair Cornyn: Without objection.
▶ 1:22:00Sen. Durbin: I want to ask a general question here. I am sure each of you have reviewed a lot of evidence and made recommendations, as inspectors general do. Did any of you make the recommendation for the policy we currently have which stops the processing of all immigrant and visa applications for individuals with afghan passports?
▶ 1:22:26Mr. Baker: I think I will take that question because the state department's primary responsibility is issuing visas. Our position as inspectors general, we do not make policy decisions, the agency does, and this is a policy decision that the agency, rather than we.
▶ 1:22:47Sen. Durbin: Do the others have anything to add to that?
▶ 1:22:53Mr. Adelman: I agree with his assessment.
▶ 1:22:56Mr. Roark: I agree.
▶ 1:22:58Sen. Durbin: Here is my dilemma, or my challenge. It was noted this afternoon. I sat through, I don't know how long it was, but we had a period of time in the skiff with classified and secret information trying to get to the bottom of this. It is a serious, serious situation involving the loss of life and serious injury and we are trying to figure out what went wrong, what did we do that was wrong.
▶ 1:23:26Sen. Durbin: The thing that kept occurring to me was theinvolved with the natl guardsmen had been identified as a person with problems, serious problems. For all three of you, this may accused in the tragic shooting of two national guard members, without saying there is a failure in natural vetting, instead there was a failure to respond to urgent requests made by his volunteers and family
▶ 1:23:57Sen. Durbin: Members about deteriorating mental health. Mr. baker, human reference to this already. Isn't this a real gap that you go through in checking the boxes one after the other and miss the obvious problem that could have led to saving the life of this national guardsmen and the one who is injured?
▶ 1:24:17Mr. Adelman: I can't talk to the assessment of the pacific individual. Overall I would say the interview conducted when someone applies for benefits would be an opportunity to get to know the person and see if there are any challenges there.
▶ 1:24:30Sen. Durbin: This was over a period of time. It was not day after day. It could have been days, weeks, or even longer between interviews. In this situation, where the shooter's situation at home was deteriorating and he was showing bizarre conduct, driving all over the united states, making statements that worried even his family. How can we miss something like that?
▶ 1:24:58Sen. Durbin: That seems to me to be getting the heart of whether this person is safe to be in this country or safer others.
▶ 1:25:04Mr. Adelman: We have looked at continuous monitoring of individuals who remain on parole. We found that dhs continues to do a poor job of sharing information between their different components, whether it be cbp, ucsic and ice, and did not have agreement on what guidelines would lead to enforcement action during our process.
▶ 1:25:27Sen. Durbin: I might say we are talking about an agency which has devoted -- diverted massive resources now to a totally unrelated undertaking involving the cities of chicago and minneapolis and other places. Mr. baker, what is your impression when you consider this gap and asking the very basic questions of what is wrong with this man?
▶ 1:25:47Mr. Baker: I can't, like my colleagues, speak to the individual case, but I can go back to the work we have done. State department responsible for the first, I believe, 30 to 90 days of resettlement activities which included providing services to evacuees pending transition to the department of health and human services which carried that further.
▶ 1:26:14Mr. Baker: Our work did find significant challenges with mental health support and screening in part because the evacuation occurred during covid, in part because of difficulties finding medical professionals with language skills that would be sufficient to work with the afghan population. Furthermore, the state department's role was only for 90 days for this program in the transition to hhs occurred.
▶ 1:26:44Mr. Baker: I would say that that was a finding and a concern that we had in terms of mental health support and the work my office has done.
▶ 1:26:52Sen. Durbin: I have run out of time here. I am sorry, Mr. roark. But have we learned anything from this horrible experience, this tragedy? There is a lot of finger-pointing that goes on in capitol hill by both medical parties. Is this joe biden's fault? Is this donald trump's fault?
▶ 1:27:15Sen. Durbin: Wouldn't it be better for us to take a lesson from this as to how we can improve in the future rather than shutting down any access of asylum into the united states from 39 different countries? I would like to see us do something positive and bipartisan and make this a safer system. Thank you.
▶ 1:27:31Chair Cornyn: Do any of the witnesses disagree with the statement that a prerequisite, a nonnegotiable requirement of any of these programs, whether it is the special immigrant visa program or the parole program, should be the safety and security of the american people? Anybody disagree with that? Mr.
▶ 1:27:56Chair Cornyn: Baker, um, in 2024, your office issued a report stating that the state could not confirm the number of individuals evacuated from afghanistan. Is that correct?
▶ 1:28:13Mr. Baker: That is correct.
▶ 1:28:15Chair Cornyn: What we do know is about 80,000 of these individuals, this unknown total of individuals evacuated, that 80,000 of them were paroled into the united states. Mr. adelman, you mentioned the fact that parole, this authority of the executive branch to allow people to enter the country who would otherwise be inadmissible, is supposed to be decided on a case-by-case basis.
▶ 1:28:46Chair Cornyn: Correct?
▶ 1:28:46Mr. Adelman: Correct.
▶ 1:28:49Chair Cornyn: And would you agree with me that the categorical issue of parole, whether it is to the afghan nationals, or to the millions of people the biden administration let come across the southern border, is an abuse of that authority given to the executive branch? In other words, it's not on an individual basis, right?
▶ 1:29:17Mr. Adelman: Each individual who entered parole, through parole, was inspected by cvp and ultimately that process leads to the parole of that individual. I can't speak to whether the grouping of individuals is against the policy.
▶ 1:29:36Chair Cornyn: Well, when you are letting tens of thousands of people into the country, whether it is across the southern border or from afghanistan, and you are not doing it on an individual basis, then that, according to your testimony, what should be done on an individual basis is not being done. Would it be fair to say, Mr.
▶ 1:30:01Chair Cornyn: Baker, that the level of vetting required under the special immigrant visa program that you testified about, that senator padilla mentioned, that that vetting process was far more stringent than what was required by the biden administration for afghan parolees?
▶ 1:30:19Mr. Baker: Senator, yes, I think I would agree with that. However, I would caveat it by saying we have not looked at or have overall responsibilities over the parolee program.
▶ 1:30:34Chair Cornyn: Mr. baker, if you could set the scene for us. We don't know how many people were evacuated from afghanistan. All of us, the image of people trying to jump on the c-130 coming out of afghanistan, out of kabul, will be forever burned in our memory. But we don't know how many people were ultimately evacuated.
▶ 1:31:01Chair Cornyn: We do know that the biden administration granted parole outside of the special immigrant visa program to about 80,000 individuals. But how in the world can you properly vet an individual if you don't know -- if they don't know their date of birth? I mean, the fact is, afghanistan has been a war-torn country for a long time.
▶ 1:31:28Chair Cornyn: And basically the taliban, a terrorist organization, allowed al qaeda a foothold in afghanistan, and obviously we know how that turned out on 9/11, 2001. But is there any surprise to you, Mr. baker, that we don't know when many of these people were born? That we actually don't have any records whatsoever, one way or another, about these individuals?
▶ 1:31:57Mr. Baker: I think our work has shown, senator, there is in fact a high level of identity fraud in afghanistan for documents. And with respect to the special immigrant visa program, which I can speak to more directly, there were significant staffing gaps at the embassy. About a third of the positions were vacant prior to the evacuation.
▶ 1:32:24Chair Cornyn: I believe you mentioned that earlier. Do we know where these people are, the 80,000 people paroled by the biden administration, the afghan nationals?
▶ 1:32:36Mr. Adelman: The number that applied for immigration benefits?
▶ 1:32:39Chair Cornyn: Do we know where 80,000 are?
▶ 1:32:41Mr. Adelman: I cannot confirm we know where 80,000 are.
▶ 1:32:45Chair Cornyn: Do we know what we are doing?
▶ 1:32:47Mr. Adelman: I would deposit -- defer to the department does the monitoring.
▶ 1:32:51Chair Cornyn: Does the united states know whether any other afghan nationals admitted by use of this claimed parole authority have become radicalized?
▶ 1:32:59Mr. Adelman: I would defer to the department.
▶ 1:33:04Chair Cornyn: While we are focused on the untimely death of this national guardsmen, and the assault against her compatriot, we have no idea whether there will be future attacks against the american people, or plots like the one that was stopped by the fbi, and, uhh, shortly thereafter in fort worth.
▶ 1:33:33Chair Cornyn: Or how many of them have become since radicalized since they are in the united states. So, I will finish where I started. It is a nonnegotiable requirement, a prerequisite, that whatever visa program, whatever parole that any president might grant to foreign nationals, that first and foremost, we have to be concerned about the safety and security of the american people. Everything else is secondary.
▶ 1:34:04Chair Cornyn: And that's what this hearing is about.
▶ 1:34:14Sen. Padilla: I agree with several of the questions you're asking and it is only underscoring that the appropriate administration witnesses are not here for today's hearing. My colleagues on the right want to make this tragic incident about a failure of screening and vetting. The alleged shooter, just before thanksgiving, was part of a unit that the cia has publicly admitted to working with.
▶ 1:34:40Sen. Padilla: So I think we begin with asking ourselves, are we really going to sit here and say this man was not vetted by the cia, many steps ago in the flowchart? As for the evacuation of afghanistan, there is no question that mistakes were made during the evacuation. We're having parallel conversations here. One, the incident, the alleged shooter specifically, and the other the program, the policy, the vetting more holistically.
▶ 1:35:11Sen. Padilla: On that point we don't have to guess what went right or wrong. There's nearly 50 separate inspector general reports that have examined operation allies welcome, and the special immigrant visa program. Thank you.
▶ 1:35:32Sen. Padilla: And they analyzed this from every angle, including over two dozen reports from the three departments represented here today through their inspector general's. Since the majority appears eager to leave -- relitigate this operation, Mr. chairman, I ask that we place these reports in the hearing record without objection.
▶ 1:35:52Chair Cornyn: Without objection.
▶ 1:35:53Sen. Padilla: I also want to note that yet again, the hearing has moved forward without the appropriate government witnesses to answer some of the questions that have come up. Let me specify this, because this is public information. The vetting process the alleged shooter went through. From when began working with the cia -- I made that point already -- to when his asylum application was granted by the current trump administration.
▶ 1:36:23Sen. Padilla: Yes, that's right. The asylum application that was granted by the current trump administration. The administration representatives to answer questions about that are not here. Vetting of the people who are here. Mr. adelman, the department of home insecurity inspector general report to make clear that your audits compared the parole screening and vetting processes to the special immigrant visa program and U.S.
▶ 1:36:54Sen. Padilla: Refugee process. And that the operation allies welcome parole screening included biometric and biographic screening at lily pad locations, plus manifest vetting and cbp inspection at ports of entry. Can you briefly walk us through the layered process so the public understands what screening and vetting meant in practice.
▶ 1:37:17Mr. Adelman: Yes, thank you. Cbp and dod collected both, as you mentioned, biographic and biometric including facial images and fingerprints. While the evacuees were at the lily pads, they matched that information against government databases throughout the federal government. Once a decision was made when they were allowed to travel to the united states, cbp put together a manifest for each flight.
▶ 1:37:48Mr. Adelman: They did another round of vetting of that manifest. Then they were allowed to fly over into the united states. At that point, they went through the normal inspection process that everyone would go through when they reach a U.S. port of entry, which is the inspection process run by cbp. If cbp found something, they would take them to secondary.
▶ 1:38:06Sen. Padilla: Thank you. We do agree that your reports ultimately found that these processes were indeed followed? Yes or no?
▶ 1:38:14Mr. Adelman: Generally speaking the vast majority was followed.
▶ 1:38:17Sen. Padilla: Thank you. Mr. brown, do you agree as well that these processes were followed, yes or no?
▶ 1:38:30Mr. Baker: We reviewed 112 files in our audit looking at steps required to protect national security. And found that all state department required steps were conducted in the sample.
▶ 1:38:45Sen. Padilla: Thank you. In my limited time I want to ask a question on an important and related manner. We spent a lot of time today talking about the screening and vetting in a program that has been repeatedly evaluated by offices of inspectors general. The documents are right here. Including those represented here. What I have not heard today is any concern for screening and vetting in what I would call a hastily concocted program, president trump's so-called quote-unquote gold card.
▶ 1:39:18Sen. Padilla: Unsurprisingly there is limited information available on the gold card website and even on the uscis website. Mr. adelman, today you testified about concerns about screening and vetting into programs that put people through background checks multiple times over the course of years. The trump gold card website answers a question of, quote, how long will the process take? Once an applicant --
▶ 1:39:41Chair Cornyn: Your time is up.
▶ 1:39:44Sen. Padilla: You went over your time. I would appreciate -- [cross talk]
▶ 1:39:55Chair Cornyn: You are out of order.
▶ 1:39:57Sen. Padilla: -- only if the price is right.
▶ 1:40:02Chair Cornyn: Senator is recognized.
▶ 1:40:05Sen. Britt: Thank you. Look, the biden/harris disasters withdraw from afghanistan sent shock waves not just through that region but literally across the entire globe. I was not in this body at that time. I was on the campaign trail. And there is no where I visited in the state of alabama where people did not have a visceral reaction to the lack of our commander-in-chief being in command.
▶ 1:40:33Sen. Britt: We know that travesty was just further elevated by the fact that we failed in the vetting process and today we are here to get answers about what actually happened and how we can make sure that this doesn't happen in the future. So that's what I want to focus on. I have heard a lot of conversation about what went right or what went wrong, what should have happened, where we failed, where we didn't have the proper procedures. So let's talk about that.
▶ 1:41:00Sen. Britt: One of the things that I saw in, I think it was september of 2022, the I just -- dhs dod said cbp admitted the following evacuees to the U.S. under a w and it was for 17 evacuees whose name was totally unknown. There were 242 evacuees whose last name was unknown. 11,110 evacuees whose date of birth was january 1. And it goes on and on and on.
▶ 1:41:31Sen. Britt: Despite this, the biden/harris administration dhs did not concur with the recommendations of dhs oig that you all made to address it and to actually ensure it did not happen again. One of those recommendations was from dhs to develop a comprehensive contingency plan to adequately vent and screen all individuals during future similar emergency situations. So, do you know, Mr.
▶ 1:41:56Sen. Britt: Adelman, if any of these steps have been taken to ensure y taken to ensure implementation has been taken and where are we at now?
▶ 1:42:09Mr. Adelman: For the one recommendation on lessons learned the department did not agree and is not made any progress in completing that recommendation. We had closed a second recommendation in that report on the recurring vetting process.
▶ 1:42:23Sen. Britt: Put a pin in that. Do either of you know of any changes or structural processes that have been improved upon the failures that we have seen in the past?
▶ 1:42:37Mr. Baker: I can go back to a point a moment ago. We at state oig have an open recommendation on the department for memorializing arrangements for the collection of tracking analysis ensuring of evacuate data to upgrade --.
▶ 1:42:52Sen. Britt: Has that happened?
▶ 1:42:54Mr. Baker: It has not. That recommendation is open.
▶ 1:42:58Sen. Britt: After we saw the travesty that occurred a few weeks ago, the loss of life, still. Ok. Do you have anything?
▶ 1:43:09Mr. Roark: In our two reports we made a total of 10 recommendations and eight of those have been closed. So, taken the point you made earlier about what we can learn from this and how we can improve in the future, I think the department has taken action within about six to eight months of both of our reports to close eight of the recommendations.
▶ 1:43:32Sen. Britt: We have a limited amount of time. Mr. adelman, can you tell me some of the reclamation's made under the previous administration that we could be working on right now to try and -- that were obviously rejected that we need to put back in front of people right now?
▶ 1:43:48Mr. Adelman: The additional recommendations looked at after the evacuees were admitted into the united states, focused on who is responsible for tracking the end of parole within dhs. The components could not all agree on who was responsible. They also focused on better sharing of derogatory information within dhs and improving data quality issues. We found a large number of data inaccuracies in dhs's information.
▶ 1:44:16Sen. Britt: In my remaining minute, I know the trump administration has talked about refocusing on where we are now, finding these individuals, making sure we are doing a better job. Based on your experience in dealing with these issues, are there any other particular unresolved issues the administration can push but that we in congress need to look at to be better positioned in the event this happens in the future?
▶ 1:44:43Mr. Adelman: For me it would be to make some progress on the recommendations, to clarify responsibilities within the department of homeland security.
▶ 1:44:53Sen. Britt: Mr. baker?
▶ 1:44:56Mr. Baker: Could you repeat the question?
▶ 1:44:58Sen. Britt: I have 10 seconds. Mr. roark, do you have anything?
▶ 1:45:03Mr. Roark: For dod, if the under secretary can implement the two remaining recommendations that would go a long way.
▶ 1:45:11Sen. Britt: Let's get to work and work together to make sure we keep the american people safe.
▶ 1:45:15Chair Cornyn: Senator coons.
▶ 1:45:18Sen. Coons: Thank you. Specialists sarah beckstrom should be alive today and staff sergeant andrew wolfe should not be fighting horrific injuries and they and their families are in my prayers. One man, Mr. lincoln wall, did a horrible and tragic thing. That does not mean all of those of his same background deserve to be punished.
▶ 1:45:42Sen. Coons: Instead we should come as several of my colleagues have suggested, have a real conversation about how we ensure this doesn't happen again. And that has to include mental health resources, access to local law enforcement. Could you three each just briefly answer, is there any specific flag or piece of information that you are clear dod missed about him as he was being -- that can be which riveted to the broader issues of
▶ 1:46:14Sen. Coons: Vetting discuss in your reports?
▶ 1:46:15Mr. Adelman: We didn't look at the specific individual and I don't want to comment on him because of the open investigation.
▶ 1:46:24Sen. Coons: Understood.
▶ 1:46:26Mr. Baker: Really, the same.
▶ 1:46:29Mr. Roark: Dod has a lot of information and data that we compiled over 20 years in afghanistan and I think the question for us to look at was how best can we get that information into the hands of decision-makers. So that is why we focused in our two reports on the macro issues and how we can deal with that risk and identify improvements that can be made.
▶ 1:46:55Sen. Coons: I would appreciate more follow-up from you on that but here is what I just heard from the three of you. We are not here at a hearing where you looked at this tragic case and this individual and then looked back at the raft of previous reports in your work to say this is the failure in vetting or this is the process issue that led to this individual being in the united states.
▶ 1:47:19Sen. Coons: I think we need to have a serious conversation about his case, is mental health struggles, how we can identify and ensure a similar threat to stop before a tragedy strikes. But I do disagree with the way this hearing was framed both in its title and I think its overall objective, to dust -- justify the demonization of the afghan people and in particular those who served alongside our troops and came here through the post-conflict relocation. Mr.
▶ 1:47:48Sen. Coons: Adelman, I have been really concerned with the impact of the trump administration's guts to public safety and counterterrorism grant programs to states. I have been concerned with its reassignment of thousands of law enforcement personnel to support mass deportations of individuals without criminal records. Both of these have harmed the public safety and taken resources away from the very local law enforcement efforts that might have prevented this specific attack.
▶ 1:48:15Sen. Coons: Are you conducting any inquiries into the effects that these cuts and reassignments have had on dhs's ability to address current or future threats to the homeland?
▶ 1:48:24Mr. Adelman: Normally in our work, we would wait until the grants are paid out before we would take a look at them. I understand this situation creates different issues. It is something we can take under consideration.
▶ 1:48:40Sen. Coons: There were additional mental-health grants cut today. There were law enforcement-related related grants cut last year. My hope is that you will do some of that work and then come back to the chairs of these subcommittees to discuss it. The last question for you, if I might, Mr. adelman.
▶ 1:48:58Sen. Coons: Your 2022 report, oig 2264, its first recommendation required providing evidence of full screening in vetting of all afghan evacuees, and ensuring the recurring vetting processes were established. Your testimony says you closed that recommendation. Can you say more about how or why that recommendation was closed?
▶ 1:49:20Mr. Adelman: Yes. Cpb provided us with data to illustrate the recurring vetting process was created and followed. They also show that they obtained additional information potentially through when someone is applying for immigration benefits. We are doing follow-up work to look at the current recurring vetting process, and if things have improved in terms of information sharing.
▶ 1:49:42Sen. Coons: I look forward to hearing about your new study about the recurring vetting process and I welcome that analysis. Let me just make sure I heard you right. That first recommendation required evidence of full screening in vetting, and ensuring the recurring vetting processes were established. And you close that recommendation.
▶ 1:50:01Mr. Adelman: That is correct.
▶ 1:50:02Sen. Coons: Thank you.
▶ 1:50:04Chair Cornyn: Senator coons, I will repudiate the characterization of this hearing as a demonization of the afghan people. This hearing is about president biden's administration failure to keep the american people safe. That's what this hearing is about. Senator cruz.
▶ 1:50:21Sen. Cruz: In august of 2021 joe biden and the democrats presided over the most disastrous american retreat in modern times. In afghanistan we saw chaos, we saw bagram air base abandoned to the taliban. We saw afghans clinging to the wheels as planes took off. And we saw 13 american servicemen and women murdered.
▶ 1:50:50Sen. Cruz: It was utter disaster, and the subsequent evacuation was both overinclusive and underinclusive. It was underinclusive in that we left behind afghans who had risked their lives supporting the U.S. military. And it was overinclusive in that the biden administration, did at best, half-assed vetting that put the american people in danger.
▶ 1:51:18Sen. Cruz: In the span of just a few days, the biden administration carried out the largest importation of foreigners in american history, bringing more than 120,000 people including tens of thousands of unvented afghans into the united states. Mr. baker, you are the acting inspecting general of the state department. Approximately how many afghan nationals were ultimately brought to the united states?
▶ 1:51:47Mr. Baker: Senator, according to visa statistics, about 145,000 visas and U.S. refugee admission program admissions occurred. Secretary blinken identified 124,000 evacuees out of kabul as the number.
▶ 1:52:11Mr. Baker: However, we were never able to verify that number despite eight months of work with the department of defense and oig colleagues.
▶ 1:52:18Sen. Cruz: Your office found serious breakdowns in record-keeping and accountability?
▶ 1:52:22Mr. Baker: Yes.
▶ 1:52:23Sen. Cruz: And most of those individuals were admitted through mass parole, not through fully vetted visas. Is that correct?
▶ 1:52:31Mr. Baker: I can speak to the state department piece of that and I believe, I don't have the numbers for my colleague.
▶ 1:52:40Mr. Adelman: 77 thousand were paroled into the united states.
▶ 1:52:44Sen. Cruz: And the numbers are stark of the 77,000 you just mentioned, more than 70,000 had no prior lawful immigration status and were paroled into this country. Mr. adelman, you are the deputy inspector general of audits for the department of home and security. Your office document of the vetting process for this population was rushed, fragmented and incomplete. Is that correct?
▶ 1:53:08Mr. Adelman: Correct.
▶ 1:53:10Sen. Cruz: Because of that rushed process, terrorism indicators and derogatory intelligence were not fully resolved prior to entry. Is that correct?
▶ 1:53:20Mr. Adelman: We identified two individuals who turned out had derogatory information and later had to be removed from the united states.
▶ 1:53:28Sen. Cruz: According to intelligence assessments, approximately 2000 of these evacuees had terrorism related ties or derogatory intelligence indications. Because the vetting was rushed and fragmented, those indicators were not fully resolved before entry, and worse, there was no follow-up after entry to determine who actually posed a threat.
▶ 1:53:52Sen. Cruz: Even so, with only cursory post entry review, law enforcement has already identified at least 55 afghan evacuees who were confirmed or suspected terrorists. 55. Mr. adelman, these 55 individuals were not uncovered through a comprehensive screening. They were identified despite the absence of one. Is that fair to say?
▶ 1:54:18Mr. Adelman: I cannot speak to the 55 but I can say there were challenges in the process.
▶ 1:54:24Sen. Cruz: If only cursory scrutiny confirmed 55 confirmed or suspected terrorists, isn't it reasonable to conclude additional risks may have gone undetected among the remaining population?
▶ 1:54:35Mr. Adelman: That was our concern.
▶ 1:54:37Sen. Cruz: The gravest danger was not limited just to those we managed to identify. On november 26, just blocks away from the white house, an afghan national paroled into the united states by joe biden opened fire on national guard service members a standing watch over our capitol. 20-year-old guardsman sarah beckstrom was shot and killed at her post. Guardsman andrew wolfe was critically wounded. And the most chilling truth is this.
▶ 1:55:05Sen. Cruz: The november 26 afghan attacker in washington, D.C. was not among the 2000 individuals flagged by intelligence assessments. He was not among the 55 confirmed or suspected terrorists. We have young americans in uniform doing their duty who should not have been shot and should not have died. For years we have been sounding the alarm and for years the biden administration looked the other way and endangered every american in this country.
▶ 1:55:39Chair Cornyn: Senator blumenthal.
▶ 1:55:46Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you, Mr. chairman. I think I speak for all the members of this panel in expressing the view that violence is absolutely abhorrent and unacceptable. That our hearts go out to the family of army specialists sarah beckstrom, and we pray for the quick recovery of staff sergeant andrew wolfe. My hope is that we honor them with action.
▶ 1:56:16Sen. Blumenthal: That we look forward and say to ourselves, how can we stop this kind of violence from happening again. What we know about the shooter's mental health is it had apparently been declining for some time. And individuals familiar with him raised the alarm over episodes of depression and erratic behavior.
▶ 1:56:45Sen. Blumenthal: There's speculation his prior roles in combat, because he was at the side of our troops, as part of a cia-backed unit in afghanistan, might have contributed to pts day. -- ptsd. In the same way that our own troops come home with that kind of illness. It is an illness, a disease.
▶ 1:57:16Sen. Blumenthal: It is treatable but it has to be addressed. So the topic here is framed as one of vetting and perceived failures of vetting. It also should be viewed as one of mental health and even of gun violence. Mental health is not an afghan problem. It's an american problem. Mr. adelman, do you know how the shooter obtained the gun?
▶ 1:57:46Mr. Adelman: We have not looked into any records of the suspect.
▶ 1:57:51Sen. Blumenthal: Do you know whether mental health services were available to him?
▶ 1:57:55Mr. Adelman: I do not.
▶ 1:57:57Sen. Blumenthal: Do you know whether reports had been conducted to examine levels of ptsd that refugees or others coming into this country, after thorough vetting, may be suffering from?
▶ 1:58:14Mr. Adelman: We have not looked at that in the past.
▶ 1:58:17Sen. Blumenthal: Let me ask you on another topic. A lot of talk today about screening and vetting. I have not heard anything today looking forward about the so-called gold card, president trump's gold card. My understanding is, from the limited information available on the gold card website -- and actually I will quote from it.
▶ 1:58:45Sen. Blumenthal: Once an applicant's processing fee and application is received, the process should take weeks. We are talking about vetting and screening of someone who came into the country after multiple series of vetting's over years.
▶ 1:59:03Sen. Blumenthal: Do you have any plans to look into this process of vetting and screening that allows somebody to come into the country after only weeks, possibly of superficial, very little vetting, simply because they can pay money to expedite the process?
▶ 1:59:22Mr. Adelman: We take a risk-based approach and we take a look at what odds to look at. As we learn more about this we will take that under consideration.
▶ 1:59:30Sen. Blumenthal: I am asking you for a commitment that you will in fact look into the gold card process. To prevent this kind of problem from occurring in real time we see the potential it falls.
▶ 1:59:52Sen. Blumenthal: Will you look into them to prevent the kind of absolutely abhorrent consequences that we saw in the death of these two great national guardsmen?
▶ 2:00:01Mr. Adelman: Yes, we will look into it as part of our planning process, yes.
▶ 2:00:06Sen. Blumenthal: I was a critic of the afghanistan withdrawal in the way that it was done. Not here to relitigate that issue. I am here to look forward and try to prevent this kind of tragedy from occurring again. Thank you.
▶ 2:00:25Chair Cornyn: I just have one last question before we excuse this panel. But given what you have described, and the difficulty of getting information from a war-torn country, one that had been involved in war for 20 years or more, given the fact the taliban, a terrorist organization basically was in
▶ 2:00:56Chair Cornyn: Control or governing the country, given the fact of illiteracy on the part of many of the afghan nationals who didn't even, couldn't even state the date of their birth. Do you agree with me that the default position of this operation allies welcome was, unless we find something derogatory, you are going to be admitted?
▶ 2:01:25Chair Cornyn: In other words, no record was treated as a positive in terms of admission. Do you agree with that characterization?
▶ 2:01:36Mr. Adelman: I do.
▶ 2:01:38Chair Cornyn: Thank you.
▶ 2:01:43Mr. Baker: I also would agree. I would point to summer work on siv's where we have a high refusal rate for those who go through a thorough process that does indicate again document fraud and other risks with those applicant pools.
▶ 2:02:00Chair Cornyn: Thank you. I didn't see senator moody come in but I will recognize her next and I understand senator blackburn is here.
▶ 2:02:24Sen. Blackburn: First of all, I want to say thank you that you all are here. And I think the chairman for calling a joint hearing that we could work through this. I think there are so many questions that have arisen out of this parolee program.
▶ 2:02:49Sen. Blackburn: And the hurt that it has caused, the uncertainty that it has caused has not been something that would credit our nation's processes and policies. Fraud, let's talk about that. Mr. adelman, I want to come to you with this. This is something that we have heard so much about.
▶ 2:03:19Sen. Blackburn: Of course the white house had had quite a focus on this and with what has happened in minnesota, that has really caused people to look at some of these programs. I introduced the fraud accountability act this month, and it was something that would make fraud a deportable offense. And would actually update the ina, to make certain that it is explicit.
▶ 2:03:51Sen. Blackburn: Now, you are serving as the deputy inspector general and the dhs office of audits. So, I want you to talk for a minute about what you are seeing with fraud, how you see if it is widespread, and how you respond to the steps that this administration, unlike the last administration, this administration is taking steps to root it out.
▶ 2:04:21Mr. Adelman: Thank you. We've done extensive work on covid relief fraud. In our office we had a group that was, or is, directly focused on that and we found many challenges with fraud through the covid funding received by states.
▶ 2:04:41Mr. Adelman: We also looked at fema grants to ensure those are spent correctly and we have a large number of reports on that and we will continue to do that type of work to ensure that any time the department is spending its funds, that there is not fraud involved or wasted funds. I would need to review the changes that would be made, plus I would not really look at the policy of changes to the ina in my position.
▶ 2:05:11Mr. Adelman: But I can say that we continue to look to root out fraud with the department spending.
▶ 2:05:18Sen. Blackburn: Where are you seeing the most prevalent entry points for people committing fraud? Is it through a lack of vetting in these programs, or where is that entry point?
▶ 2:05:29Mr. Adelman: I think there is always a balance when there is an emergency. You want to quickly provide funds for those people who have faced something terrible, but when you are speeding through those and sometimes there is something called self certification where they are saying I need the funds, that is where there can be a challenge.
▶ 2:05:50Sen. Blackburn: Ok. Mr. baker, let's talk about vetting, and the committee has talked quite a bit about that. As you have been in this hearing today. And I think there is no doubt that the lack of vetting is something that has just caused so much concern.
▶ 2:06:13Sen. Blackburn: One of the things that I hear in tennessee is that as people are reviewing these programs, they are not necessarily talking about it as a national security issue. They talk about it as a public safety issue. And we have referenced the situation here in D.C. with sarah beckstrom and staff sergeant wolfe and the tragedy that is there.
▶ 2:06:43Sen. Blackburn: But talk about how you see this lining up with those public safety concerns rising.
▶ 2:06:51Mr. Baker: Senator, thank you for that good question. I think we in-state oig do view visa and integrity as a matter of national security and not just public safety. It is integral to the work that we do and the work with the special immigrant visa program is included in an integrity working group with dhs. U.S.
▶ 2:07:15Mr. Baker: Customs and immigration service and bureau of diplomatic security, which has concurrent jurisdiction for a visa and passport fraud from the beginning. We have a number of ongoing cases, as I mentioned earlier, related to the siv program. And we are very much seized with the importance of this part of the portfolio for our oversight role.
▶ 2:07:38Sen. Blackburn: Thank you.
▶ 2:07:41Chair Cornyn: Senator whitehouse.
▶ 2:07:44Sen. Whitehouse: May I first ask if any of the witnesses on this panel served in afghanistan?
▶ 2:07:56Mr. Adelman: No.
▶ 2:07:58Mr. Baker: No.
▶ 2:08:01Mr. Roark: No.
▶ 2:08:04Sen. Whitehouse: Ok. The reason I ask that question is because I think one important voice for a hearing like this is the men and women who served in afghanistan, and who worked closely with afghan soldiers and intelligence operatives, very often very closely, very often with their security determined by the capability of their
▶ 2:08:35Sen. Whitehouse: Afghan colleagues. And when the issue of afghan resettlement came up, the voices that I heard the most where the voices of rhode islanders who had served in afghanistan, other americans who had served in afghanistan, and whose message to us was, many of us owe our lives to these afghan soldiers.
▶ 2:08:59Sen. Whitehouse: We have a moral duty to protect them and to give them an opportunity to come to the united states and not leave them to the tender mercies of the taliban. Do any of you disagree that the service of afghan troops and intelligence professionals gave them some moral standing in an effort to relocate to the united states?
▶ 2:09:27Mr. Adelman: No.
▶ 2:09:29Sen. Whitehouse: Mr. adelman does not disagree with that. Is that no, no, and no? Well, I happen to agree with you and I wish that voice was more prevalent here. I've also been told, and if anybody cares to correct me in a response for the record, you are welcome to do so, but I have been told that the number of afghans who have entered on parole into the united states
▶ 2:10:01Sen. Whitehouse: Under operation allies welcome is 76,000. And that of those 76,000, as of a report from the department of homeland security in december, six has been arrested. 76,000 brought into the united states. Six have been arrested.
▶ 2:10:29Sen. Whitehouse: By my count, more january 6 rioters pardonded by president trump were arrested after the pardon than our afghan allies brought into this country under operation allies welcome.
▶ 2:10:51Sen. Whitehouse: So, I hope as we go forward we consider what our obligation was to those afghan soldiers and intelligence operatives, translators, ied technicians, who served beside our troops, often protected them, sometimes at the cost of injury or loss of life to themselves.
▶ 2:11:23Sen. Whitehouse: Particularly where the numbers -- I cannot do the math off the top of my head, but six out of 76,000 getting arrested? That's like less than 1/10 of 1%. We are not exactly dealing with this dangerous intrusion into our country when those are the actual numbers.
▶ 2:11:43Sen. Whitehouse: So I wanted to make those points because I think a hearing like this should reflect the views of the americans who served in all the different stages of our activities in afghanistan. From those earliest days when our special forces teams went in and charged around on horseback in the mountains, only able to operate because of the support of afghan allies.
▶ 2:12:10Sen. Whitehouse: All the way through until the departure from afghanistan that was driven by a very unfortunate agreement entered into by president trump.
▶ 2:12:21Chair Cornyn: Senator moody.
▶ 2:12:24Sen. Moody: Thank you. This is an important hearing. I think any time we can show the american people that we are thoroughly investigating and providing oversight when there has been harm in america to americans, especially those who have volunteered to serve come we need to show we are doing everything we can to ensure we mitigate the chance of ever happening again.
▶ 2:12:51Sen. Moody: I appreciate all three of you coming today so we can inform this critical review, this critical function of government, on behalf of the american people. Unfortunately we continue to find example after example where failures of the last administration come to light.
▶ 2:13:16Sen. Moody: I have discovered numerous examples where laws were being broken, reckless decisions were being made. Unfortunately, we still had the same activity go on and on and on and watching the horrific results of those decisions and policies play out on our tv is every night.
▶ 2:13:46Sen. Moody: People demand we get back to proper governance and we examine what went wrong and ensure it doesn't happen again. The tragedy we witnessed right before thanksgiving, the tragic killing of a national guardsmen, critical wounding of another at the hands of a foreign national, the american people deserve answers. Tragedies like this are becoming all too familiar, and I can name the names and americans across the nation can name these by hea rt now.
▶ 2:14:16Sen. Moody: Laken riley, nathaniel ■barker, sarah beckstrom. Their families now grapple with the reality that they will be missing loved ones. And time and time again, under biden's leadership, noncitizens, heck, even entire nations were prioritized over american citizens. And that shameful withdrawal from afghanistan, the way that went down reminded americans of that fact.
▶ 2:14:42Sen. Moody: In fact, I bet everyone in this room sitting here today remembers exactly what they were doing when they watched that debacle, htat tragedy play out. I polled everybody in my office this morning. Do each of you remember when you saw that happen? Do you remember what you are doing?
▶ 2:15:06Sen. Moody: Every single one of them remembered because it was such a devastating embarrassment to our nation, and certainly, a morale blow to the men and women who served over there.
▶ 2:15:21Sen. Moody: Not only did they allow millions and millions of illegal aliens to flow across our southern border and then pushed so many of those that were unvented into our neighborhoods, they granted entry to thousands of barely vetted afghan nationals at the expense of american citizens. You know, you don't just have to take my word for it. Hunter biden said last month that the afghanistan withdrawal was an obvious failure.
▶ 2:15:52Sen. Moody: And I think he used profanity with that, but. The position remains, and it may be the only thing we agree on, that the last president, president biden, failed the american people, and president trump is trying his best to fix it. And now congress has to act to make sure that these fixes stick, and that we don't find ourselves in this position again. And so Mr. baker, I thank you for your service to our country.
▶ 2:16:21Sen. Moody: Under president trump, we have stopped treating border security and vetting like best practice suggestions. And we have started treating them like the core national security responsibilities that they are.
▶ 2:16:36Sen. Moody: Can you share with us or identify of any enhanced trump -era special immigrant visa screening practices or controls that made that program more secure and reliable, which we should codify or focus on so that these cannot be bypassed in the future during a time of crisis?
▶ 2:16:58Mr. Baker: Senator, thank you for that question. My office is not done work. As you may know, the afghan siv program has been suspended. However, we do have four recommendations outstanding with the department if that department is to be restarted that will strengthen siv processing. And again, I am speaking to siv 's and not to what my colleagues would be handling with humanitarian parole.
▶ 2:17:27Mr. Baker: One area we saw from the very beginning was the lack of strategic planning. That is, of setting goals and measuring them systematically. Policies for ongoing interagency coordination improvements, a second recommendation and employment verification mou with dod. And finally, staffing plans.
▶ 2:17:48Mr. Baker: So we have four recommendations and I know my colleagues do too, that, if implemented, will strengthen the program. I trust congress constan -- can consider in that context.
▶ 2:18:04Sen. Moody: I have used all my time.
▶ 2:18:06Chair Cornyn: I want to thank all of your witnesses for being here today and for your service to our country. We are going to move now into the next panel. And thank you again for being here.
▶ 2:19:50Chair Cornyn: Thank you all for being here and for being so patient during the first panel. We are looking forward to hearing from you. I will introduce three over witnesses and senator padilla will introduce the other two and then we would like to hear your opening statement. Simon hankinson is senior research fellow at the heritage foundation. From 1999 to 2022 as a foreign service officer serving in multiple locations around the world. Prior to his work as a foreign service officer, Mr.
▶ 2:20:20Chair Cornyn: Hankinson worked as a lawyer in london and then taught history, english and drama at a private school in miami. Mr. hankinson holds a masters degree from the college of law in london and a masters degree of international security affairs from the national defense university.
▶ 2:20:47Chair Cornyn: Nayla rush is a senior researcher for the center for immigration studies focusing on refugees and asylum policy. She holds a phd in migration studies from the university of sussex in the u.k., sociology from paris -- excuse my pronunciation -- and a ba in sociology from the american university of beirut. Dr.
▶ 2:21:13Chair Cornyn: Rush is an expert in global issues related to international migration, analyzing migration's impact on the social, cultural and economic dynamics of societies. Julie marzouk -- did I get that correct? Julie marzouk is a lawyer, an author and a strategic problem solve her with experience in legal advocacy, policy analysis and nonprofit coalitions.
▶ 2:21:42Chair Cornyn: She has directed nonprofit law firms and served as a clinical law professor. Evolve advocacy consulting partners with funders, community institutions and policy leaders to design and execute high-impact legal regulatory and narrative strategies that defend jewish civil rights and strengthen democratic norms. I will turn to senator padilla to introduce our remaining witnesses.
▶ 2:22:05Sen. Padilla: I am pleased to welcome and briefly introduce the minority witnesses beginning with Mr. nadim yousify. Mr. yousify's life is guided by selfless service. Born in afghanistan he stood shoulder to shoulder with united states forces as an interpreter from 2010 to 2015, putting himself and his family at great personal risk.
▶ 2:22:32Sen. Padilla: After being approved for a special immigrant visa in 2015 and moving to the united states, he chose -- chose -- to enlist in the united states marine corps as an infantry rifleman, reentering active duty. This time wearing an american uniform. Mr. yousify went on to complete his two deployments, first with the 11th marine expeditionary unit and another with a special-purpose marine air ground task force crisis response. Today, Mr.
▶ 2:22:59Sen. Padilla: Yousify is a nursing student and a U.S. citizen with aspirations to commission as an officer in the army nurse corps following graduation. Remarkably, he also makes time to also be involved in his community and to give back. Since 2021, Mr. yousify has been assisting other resettled afghans navigate the many aspects of building a stable, successful life here in the united states.
▶ 2:23:25Sen. Padilla: His level of his adopted country, is afghan heritage and exemplary record of service to the united states have instilled in him a unique combination of service, loyalty and generous spirit. He brings to this conversation a depth and breadth of thirst hand knowledge that only comes from a life is devoted to our country as his. I thank him for being here. It is also my pleasure to introduce our second witness, Mr.
▶ 2:23:51Sen. Padilla: Perry blackburn, a retired lieutenant colonel who served as U.S. armed special forces officer. He was one of the first americans on the ground in afghanistan after september 11. He is the founder and ceo of afg free, an organization he founded to keep the promise to get afghan partners out of afghanistan safely. Through his organization he has helped evacuate thousands of U.S. citizens and allies from afghanistan. Lt. Col.
▶ 2:24:21Sen. Padilla: Blackburn, thank you for your service and for testifying before us today.
▶ 2:24:25Chair Cornyn: Thank you to each of the witnesses are being here. Mr. hankinson, we will start with you for a five minute opening.
▶ 2:24:34Mr. Hankinson: Let me put the bottom line up front. I'm certain that of the 200,000 afghans brought here under programs hastily arranged by the biden administration since 2021 there are hundreds who should be deported. Some have criminal or terrorist records that make them inadmissible under our immigration laws and I believe it is inevitable members of this opposition will victimize americans or other immigrants in the future. The U.S. involvement in afghanistan exactly book ends my career as a foreign service officer.
▶ 2:25:04Mr. Hankinson: From our first casualty in november 2001, to the final terrorist attack at kabul airport 20 years later that killed 13 americans. As in my first tour in india when we got into afghanistan, I was in my last tour in nairobi when we left. Through no fault of the many brave and dutiful american men and women who served there, the U.S. presence in afghanistan did not receive -- achieve its desired objective. The end was ignominious.
▶ 2:25:36Mr. Hankinson: The afghan government we paid billions to prop up felt like a house of cards. Our exit was rushed and chaotic. We brought home are dead and wounded but left billions in equipment and supplies for the taliban. When the treaty of paris ended the revolutionary war, ben franklin wrote, if we do not convince the world that we are a nation to be depended on for fidelity entreaties, if we appear negligent in paying our debts and ungrateful to those who have served and befriended us, our reputation and all the strength it is capable of procuring will be lost. This is true.
▶ 2:26:06Mr. Hankinson: Yet gratitude to those who have served us doesn't mean bringing everyone of them and all of their relatives to the united states. The U.S. had other options. We could have helped to support a safe zone in afghanistan itself. The country has often had regions run by warlords who oppose the central government. For instead of paying billions to bring afghans to an alien country far from home, we could have paid neighboring countries to take them in.
▶ 2:26:33Mr. Hankinson: These places have more in common with the afghan culture, religion and way of life than any western country. Even if one accept the premise that those afghans who have given exceptional service to america should be brought here, the levels of service and hence the risk varies greatly between individuals. Yet that distinction seemed to play little part in our mass evacuation effort. We didn't just bring out a few thousand exceptional afghans for whom their american colleagues virtually -- vouched.
▶ 2:27:01Mr. Hankinson: We brought in people who were lucky enough to get out of the country based on unsubstantiated claims and unproven family relationships. When americans think of afghan allies they think of guys, soldiers, translators and others who risk their lives inside our forces in the field or are in critical national security combat and intelligence roles. They are not thinking of laborers working for subcontractors or for foreign media organizations are ngo's.
▶ 2:27:26Mr. Hankinson: As afghanistan combat veteran joe kent said to a vending a foreigner in a war zone to determine if you will fight a common enemy is vastly different than venting a foreigner to see if he is suitable to live in our country. And as marine combat veteran wade miller said, separating true friends from other categories and afghan is not simple. He wrote, many play both sides. Many only did it to made money. Many were plants. Many had long-standing tribal judges against -- grudges.
▶ 2:27:57Mr. Hankinson: The biden administration's efforts to bring in as many afghans as possible and as quickly as possible resulted in standards being dropped far below the level plausible to keep out dangerous unstable or undesirable individuals. The vetting standards were inadequate to accurately determine their identity, biography and thus, national security risk. Afghans brought to the U.S. under operation allies welcome and his successor programs have been arrested for crimes including property damage, sexual assault, plotting terrorist attacks and murder.
▶ 2:28:29Mr. Hankinson: At present the U.S. has no means to bet anyone inside afghanistan. We have no diplomatic or overt security presence in the country. Until the trump administration paused on entry for afghans in 2025, the state department was still allowing them to apply for a special immigrant visas in any other country they can reach. Their applications were processed with local staff of no knowledge of afghanistan. They were interviewed by officers with no experience of afghanistan. There were no penalties for applying more than once under a false identity.
▶ 2:28:59Mr. Hankinson: Even the best vetting can only find information that is available. The saying in computing goes, garbage in, garbage out. For vetting the corollary would be nothing in, nothing out. Any record applicable to a given afghan but unavailable to U.S. agencies does not count as derogatory information. And even successful vetting cannot vet -- prevent future action. Admitting foreign nationals, however well screened, has inherent risk. Thank you for inviting me to testify today and I welcome your questions.
▶ 2:29:28Chair Cornyn: Thank you. Colonel blackburn. Mr. yousify thank you --
▶ 2:29:36Mr. Blackburn: Thank you. I come here as a witness to provide my experiences with afghanistan and american citizen evacuation. American born abroad to afford mother. Son of a soldier and is a retired soldier myself who's spent a lifetime of the point were policy in consequence meet. We lost a national guard specialist. May god rest her soul.
▶ 2:30:09Mr. Blackburn: A staff sergeant remains in our prayers as he fights to recover. Their sacrifice reserves remembrance and justice. Against a perpetrator and anyone who comes to this country with the intent to do harm. There must be no ambiguity to this point. Violence against an american servicemember is an attack on the nation itself and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
▶ 2:30:38Mr. Blackburn: It is critical I speak clearly and honestly at this point. The person who perpetrated this crime does not represent the afghan people. Not that I advocated for or continue to support. Conflating lawful allies with violent criminals dishonors our fallen soldiers and the afghans of cap faith with us. I served in the U.S. army for decades, returned as a lt. Col. After multiple combat tours.
▶ 2:31:10Mr. Blackburn: I was proud to be part of it all. Some judges career by rank rewards. The men I measured success with, we measured it differently. We measured by lives preserved promises kept. When we arrived in afghanistan we were met by a warlord, U.S. government personnel and they welcomed the presence that oneness the enemy was everywhere. No one was coming to rescue us to things went wrong.
▶ 2:31:39Mr. Blackburn: This was a special forces mission at its core should never never have anything else. People came from all over the world to kill americans. Let us not forget that. Even americans came to kill americans. It was confusing to our afghan allies. And yet our partners stood beside us. And fought beside us and translated not just language but culture. They helped us to understand tribal dynamics, honor and consequence.
▶ 2:32:09Mr. Blackburn: They died, they lived, they became with us. They cursed like us, they dipped copenhagen. The tried their best at american jokes. They believed deeply in that america meant something. We meant something. Who could not forget we actually secured polling places the women could vote.
▶ 2:32:36Mr. Blackburn: Images of women holding up ink- stained fingers to prove they voted. Women went to school, men work without fear. That was not abstract. That was earned, block by block, village by village, firefight by firefight. We did it together. That is why at happened in august 2021, it shook me to the core.
▶ 2:33:07Mr. Blackburn: . Afghans clung to an aircraft as we saw senator cruz eloquently display. It was sickening. I felt sick. We made a promise. We taught our youngest privates to align american values to the afghan people -- what we are, who we are, loyalty, accountability and honor as americans and then we left. I just could not stand by.
▶ 2:33:31Mr. Blackburn: I put my personal information out on all the social media websites I could and sit if you need help, contact me. I'm not sure what I'm doing yet but we will do something right and we did. People from across the globe responded. We formed networks overnight to save lives. It quickly became clear this effort would require resources. I established a nonprofit. Not one cent has ever been provided to be by the U.S. government.
▶ 2:34:02Mr. Blackburn: Every dollar came from me in private citizens and veterans. We established strict criteria to advocate for our afghans. First, we worked to rescue american citizens. I am proud to say are networks of advocates helped over 2000 american citizens return home after the fall of afghanistan. One of them was a woman named sarah, who had been imprisoned by the taliban.
▶ 2:34:30Mr. Blackburn: We freed her and two young girls by moving them into pakistan with the help of our afghan partners that we still had touch points with in afghanistan that were willing to do that. Eventually we got sarah back.
▶ 2:34:47Mr. Blackburn: But not before she told me "I want to stay in pakistan and help these women." the two girls she fought so hard to stay remain stranded today. You had to work with U.S. personnel and prove it. A mechanic was at the airport. He did not have the proper paperwork for his youngest daughter. We spoke about birthdates. It is a cultural thing. It is foreign to us and hard for us to wrap her mind around.
▶ 2:35:19Mr. Blackburn: It is not important to them. What is important to them is their family and family lineage. He did not have the proper paperwork for his youngest daughter. Believing they would be reunited safely in communitarian city, he boarded the airplane with his two sons. When he arrived in the united states he immediately went to work because he was not reunited first. For the first time in his life he became a single parent raising two school-aged children in a confusing country with unfamiliar laws.
▶ 2:35:52Mr. Blackburn: For three years he worked, waited and hoped. Finally in 2024, he was reunited with his family. Third, you had to meet the state department's requirements. We wanted you here legally. We did everything we could. They did the processing. We did not sign a single piece of paper to help an afghan. We just sent them to.
▶ 2:36:19Mr. Blackburn: The website even with those standards the system nearly collapsed. 13 -- we talked about this earlier -- of our finest were killed because of a attack and leadership failures. Nowhere in our doctrine do we allow enemy inside of our perimeter. That moment marked the end of an evacuation. Conflating lawful allies with violent criminals dishonors our fallen soldiers and the afghans who kept the faith with us.
▶ 2:36:51Mr. Blackburn: A marine who later became did advocate was there during the fall and witnessed his interpreter step in front of gunfire to protect him at his unit. They cleared the runway and will never forget. That is the fate of those who we left behind. That is the real life and death consequence for turning our back on those who risk their lives for our country.
▶ 2:37:20Mr. Blackburn: Programs like this exist because of our credibility. I believe our credibility matters to the world. When america makes a promise in war, people stick their lives on it. >> if you would not mind wrapping up -- we have five minutes for witnesses. It will give us a chance to ask you questions. >> in closing, our soldiers deserve justice. Our allies deserve honor and our nation deserves the truth.
▶ 2:37:50Mr. Blackburn: Thank you. >> thank you for your service.
▶ 2:37:56Ms. Marzouk: Thank you. Ranking member padilla is my personal senator from california. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today. The testimony we heard today rightfully focused on how afghans were vetted before they arrived in the united states. The story of what happened after afghans were paroled into america also deserve scrutiny.
▶ 2:38:31Ms. Marzouk: It exposes a serious national security threat. In 2022, the federal administration distributed hundreds of millions of dollars to the states to provide afghan parolees with immigration legal services. The asylum process vets applicants for terrorist affiliations. Ethical attorneys strengthen the vetting process. Unethical attorneys create vulnerabilities.
▶ 2:39:02Ms. Marzouk: Where did the afghan legal service funding go? The answer is haunting. In too many cases, our tax dollars flowed to terrorist affiliates. Let me say this clearly -- federal money went to the council on american islamic relations, or c.a.r.e.
▶ 2:39:27Ms. Marzouk: That is right -- we paid an organization with a 30 year organization with terrorism to screen parolees for terrorism. C.a.r.e. Masquerades as a muslim civil rights group but it is not true. The explicit purpose of c.a.r.e. 's creation was to advance hamas in america. This is not my opinion or hyperbole.
▶ 2:39:55Ms. Marzouk: In 1993, the fbi wiretapped the meeting where c.a.r.e. Was created. This is a matter of public traditional record. In the 2008 foundation trial, the largest financing case in history, c.a.r.e. Was named as an unindicted co-conspirator. When c.a.r.e.
▶ 2:40:17Ms. Marzouk: Try to appeal the designation, a federal judge found the government had produced ample evidence to establish c.a.r.e.'s association with hamas. After the october 7, 2023 terrorist attacks in israel, c.a.r.e.'s leadership rushed to support hamas.
▶ 2:40:41Ms. Marzouk: The current national executive director of c.a.r.e., the same person who was at the wiretapped philadelphia meeting back in 1993, expressed his happiness to see october 7. Texas and florida have recently designated care as a terrorist organization. The structure of the afghan funding of secured transparency.
▶ 2:41:09Ms. Marzouk: Federal dollars flowed from the federal government to the states and then to nonprofits. The structure makes it difficult to track funds. Here is what we do know. Carrie took over 90% of the money allocated to -- in total, care california received more than $15 million of federal money.
▶ 2:41:37Ms. Marzouk: With all of this money, care california helped fewer than half of the asylum applicants they promised to assist. Either they were very inefficient with federal resources or that money got routed to other, even more nefarious purposes. Care received $1 million for afghan immigration services from the state of washington.
▶ 2:42:05Ms. Marzouk: Care oklahoma, care florida and care texas, all provided asylum immigration legal services for arriving afghans. In its application for funding, care california effectively touted its ability to coach clients around being scrutinized for terrorism. Why would -- I was an immigration attorney for 15 years. I have taught immigration law.
▶ 2:42:34Ms. Marzouk: How attorneys prepare clients in asylum cases can be determinative. Outsourcing a core national security screening function to an organization with documented extremist associations represents a systemic failure that needs federal oversight. Thank you for your time. I look forward to your questions.
▶ 2:42:58Chair Cornyn: Thank you very much. Mr. yousify, thank you for your service to our country.
▶ 2:43:05Mr. Yousify: Thank you for your support, senator. Thank you members of the subcommittee for the opportunity to speak with you today. My name is nadim yousify, I'm a naturalized american citizen, and marine sergeant, a future nurse. I am an example of what a successful refugee looks like.
▶ 2:43:33Mr. Yousify: When it is grounded in service accountability, commitment to this country. I'm testifying in my personal capacity today and my views do not represent those of the united states marine corps. From 2010 until 2015, I served in afghanistan as an interpreter in direct support of the U.S. department of justice drug enforcement administration. I did not simply translate words, I translated intense, words and threats.
▶ 2:44:06Mr. Yousify: I helped american personnel operate safely in an environment where misunderstanding would cost lives. Working alongside american service members shaped who I am today. I saw their discipline, their professionalism, their willingness to risk everything for one another. I was inspired by that example. My family has a long tradition of military service.
▶ 2:44:30Mr. Yousify: After graduating high school, I followed it my older brother's footsteps and committed myself to serving alongside americans we respected so deeply. Because of this work I became a target for drug traffickers, taliban and other groups. Like many afghan allies, my service put my life and my family's lives at risk.
▶ 2:44:54Mr. Yousify: After years of documented service and extensive vetting, I later migrated to the united states through the special immigration visa. I want to be clear about what the process look like. It required years of interviews, background investigation, biometric screenings and continuous repeated reviews by multiple U.S. government agencies. Every detail of my history was examined. It was an obstacle course.
▶ 2:45:25Mr. Yousify: Once I arrived to the united states, immediately I enlisted in the U.S. military. I did not pass, I got 18, so I had to go back to school to improve my english and math to get a better score and finally enlist in the marine corps with a 67.
▶ 2:45:49Mr. Yousify: I had two deployments back to back to my first active-duty and I spoke four languages and tested all four of them for the dod. Today, I am a nursing student and inactive reserve status. I want to return to active duty because I want to continue serving this country when caring for those who do.
▶ 2:46:19Mr. Yousify: I hope my children and grandchildren will one day serve as well. When they are dead, they will be buried with an american flag on top of their casket. I have also been deeply involved with my community since 2021. I help navigate families into a new country, find stability and build futures.
▶ 2:46:48Mr. Yousify: Service did not end with the uniform came off. It is the way of life. I understand the concerns raised at this hearing. National security matters. Public safety matters. No one who served alongside americans like I did whatever dispute that. I also acknowledge that tragic incident involving a fellow servicemember. Losing a sister in arms.
▶ 2:47:20Mr. Yousify: A specialist, may her soul rest in peace. I extend my deepest condolences to her family and her unit. And a brother, staff sergeant, who is recovering from injuries. The sacrifice deserve respect and seriousness. It is essential to separate individual criminal acts from the reality of an entire population that was vetted, tested and proven through the service.
▶ 2:47:50Mr. Yousify: Because of their service, many afghan allies paid a deadly price with estimates of more than 300 interpreters and their family members killed because of their association with the U.S. forces during their service. A targeted attack afterward or while waiting for promised siv visas, many others were threatened, forced into hiding or assassinated quietly without headlines.
▶ 2:48:20Mr. Yousify: Like any system oversight, improvements are an accessory. Criminal acts must be addressed swiftly. Accountability must be uncompromising. Accountability should be individual, not collective. One person's crime should never erase the sacrifice of 10,000 who stood with the american service members under fire. How we treat --
▶ 2:48:45Chair Cornyn: Please wrap up your opening remarks, please.
▶ 2:48:50Mr. Yousify: I believe america. The belief led to me serving as an interpreter, and marine noah future nurse. I am not unique. There are thousands like me who serve quietly every day. Most of them are right behind me, sitting in this hall, currently present. Security and compassion are not opposite. Strong vetting and moral responsibility must exist together.
▶ 2:49:21Mr. Yousify: America is safest when it keeps voters and its word.
▶ 2:49:25Chair Cornyn: Thank. Dr. rush. Ms. rush, chairman, members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on this important topic. I began focusing on the afghan issue in 2021 as U.S. forces withdrew from afghanistan. Like many americans I watched the images of the chaos at the airport.
▶ 2:49:55Chair Cornyn: During that summer -- 80,000 afghan nationals were evacuated. But despite the program's name and contrary to the prevailing narrative, the majority of those airlifted and those who followed were not U.S. allies. Most had no connection to the U.S. government, military, or any U.S.
▶ 2:50:25Chair Cornyn: Contractor or subcontractor. The term allies has been used and misused. The former administration did not stop with the initial evacuation. It were not to create additional pathways for afghans to enter the united states. Ultimately, bringing the total number of arrivals to more than 200,000.
▶ 2:50:51Chair Cornyn: Most evacuees did not possess a visa to be admitted into the U.S., nor were they integral for special visas specifically for afghan allies. Over refugee status available to persecuted afghans. As a result the administration relied on parole to allow them into the U.S. immigration parole is a permission to enter and remain temporarily in the U.S.
▶ 2:51:19Chair Cornyn: And should be only granted on a case-by-case basis. The legality of the prior administration's extensive use of parole has been widely questioned.
▶ 2:51:34Chair Cornyn: Once processed, people re-settled into american communities and were granted the same federal benefits as refugees, including work authorization, health insurance, cash assistance, housing support and more. They were provided federally funded immigration legal services to help them seek asylum or other legal statuses.
▶ 2:52:04Chair Cornyn: These benefits were not limited to the 80,000 individuals who were hastily evacuated. Most to arrived later under biden's alternate pathways were also not our allies or persecuted refugees. They were similarly granted parole with this in benefits. All this came at the significant cost to U.S. taxpayers, with estimates reaching up to $14 billion.
▶ 2:52:35Chair Cornyn: I want to address the issue of vetting before I conclude. We know of the absence of dependable screening measures for national conflict zones with afghans and syrians. And the impossible task of crosschecking backgrounds. Beyond terrorist attack threats on U.S. grounds, there are other important implications.
▶ 2:52:58Chair Cornyn: A couple of years ago, I wrote about a young afghan evacuee who was arrested less than two months after his arrival for engaging in prohibited sexual conduct with a minor and possessing child pornography images. Most of the mitigating circumstances presented by the defense to get leniency at sentencing touched on his cultural difference.
▶ 2:53:24Chair Cornyn: According to his lawyer, some sexual conduct that is deemed criminal in the U.S. is considered acceptable in afghanistan. Even if he was -- as many who advocate for the claim, and all the documents pertaining to his history in afghanistan were available, he would still have been cleared to enter the U.S.
▶ 2:53:51Chair Cornyn: In this young man's case, nothing was missed because there was probably nothing to find. His village in rural afghanistan does not have a regular lysed criminal justice system. Disputes are resolved through administration. This shows a broader truth.
▶ 2:54:14Chair Cornyn: It is naïve and perhaps arrogant to assume newcomers will automatically leave their beliefs, norms and biases behind. Which brings us to a fundamental question -- if we are not primarily welcoming U.S. allies or persecuted refugees, who exactly are we admitting and why?
▶ 2:54:39Chair Cornyn: There are millions of afghans who are not at risk but may nonetheless wish to leave their country under taliban rule. Afghanistan has a population of roughly 38 million people. How many should the united states welcome? And on what basis? Thank you do look forward to your questions.
▶ 2:55:01Chair Cornyn: Thank you, Dr. rush.
▶ 2:55:04Sen. Hawley: Ms. marzouk, if I could start with you. I want to start with something you said and you also write about in your written testimony because it is quite striking. You said millions of dollars went to an organization -- billions of taxpayer dollars went to an organization with terrorist ties, supposedly to help screen parolees to make sure they did not have terrorist ties.
▶ 2:55:34Sen. Hawley: Let's talk about how this happened. In the fall of 2021, congress passed and then president biden signed legislation providing about $1.7 billion in taxpayer funding to help carry out refugee and entrance assistance activity -- that is language from the statute. Much of that money was made available to states.
▶ 2:55:56Ms. Marzouk: That is correct.
▶ 2:55:59Sen. Hawley: Hundreds of millions available to states that turn around and give it in the form of grants to nonprofits. Do I have that right?
▶ 2:56:09Ms. Marzouk: Exactly.
▶ 2:56:11Sen. Hawley: These nonprofit groups are supposed to be helping with the settlement process, some of them provided legal services to the refugees, is that correct?
▶ 2:56:22Ms. Marzouk: There was money for resettlement and separate money for legal services.
▶ 2:56:27Sen. Hawley: How is it that taxpayer money ends up in the hands of an organization -- may be organizations -- that have terrorist affiliations?
▶ 2:56:37Ms. Marzouk: I think there is plenty of fall to go around. The first should lie with the nonprofit that presents itself as a legitimate civil rights organization.
▶ 2:56:48Sen. Hawley: What would that be/
▶ 2:56:50Ms. Marzouk: The council of american islamic relations, care.
▶ 2:56:56Sen. Hawley: Explain why there are ties to terrorism.
▶ 2:57:00Ms. Marzouk: They were an unindicted co-conspirator. In that trial, the wiretap from the 1993 meeting in which care was founded was brought into the public record. They specifically state that they are going to present themselves as legitimate civil rights organization while furthering the mission of hamas.
▶ 2:57:26Sen. Hawley: You have an american court, an american court proceeding that finds its entity has direct ties to hamas, may be part of a hamas funding network and they are getting money did they get from the federal government to shepherd?
▶ 2:57:41Ms. Marzouk: It is hard to track the funding because some fiscal oversight portal show it more clear than others. In california they received $15 million. In the state of washington they received more than $1 million.
▶ 2:57:59Ms. Marzouk: I can say also that an affiliate of cair, the islamic center for north america, which has its own documented ties to extremism and terrorism, was also granted $1 million.
▶ 2:58:12Sen. Hawley: $15 million in one state, millions in other states going to this entity. Did you say following october 7 the leaders of cair celebrated the hamas attacks or condemned them?
▶ 2:58:25Ms. Marzouk: Multiple leaders are on public records celebrating the hamas attacks. The national director, the ceo of cair california and executive director of san francisco cair all publicly celebrated october 7.
▶ 2:58:40Sen. Hawley: You have an organization founded in conjunction with hamas that a federal court has found is linked to the funding network that is somehow getting millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to help afghan parolees supposedly make sure they are not associate with terrorism. Now when I look at the federal databases to see if there is any reference to cair, I do not see anything. Why is that? How have they hid the fact they have gotten so much money?
▶ 2:59:09Ms. Marzouk: The money went from health and human services to the states and from the states to nonprofits. In fact, nonprofits could self grant further. The money did not go directly from the federal government to cair, but rather an intermediary. That is how they have hidden the money.
▶ 2:59:27Sen. Hawley: It is like a dark money network. Is there any reason to believe that any of the representation that cair made to the states were false? Did they use false names? False front organizations?
▶ 2:59:41Ms. Marzouk: In california the contract between cair and the state of california for $7.2 million is in the name of cair of greater los angeles. Of greater los angeles. It is not a legal entity. It does not have a federal ein or file a 990. Cair of california is a legal entity.
▶ 3:00:07Ms. Marzouk: But since cair of california is not, there's no way to track that dollars.
▶ 3:00:18Sen. Hawley: So the because the money was given to a non-legal entities, we can't follow it. I thought you said a moment ago that fewer than half of the afghans that cair have actually been provided assistance. Where's the rest of the money gone?
▶ 3:00:29Ms. Marzouk: In california, cair is involved in an all of society political activism approach. They have paid activists in city councils, school boards, lobbied in the state legislator to further their extremist agenda. I cannot say with certainty that's where the federal dollars went, but I can see on the ground received the political radicalization in every aspect of california civic life.
▶ 3:00:57Sen. Hawley: Were they involved in anti-israel, anti-jewish protests that we saw all over the country?
▶ 3:01:14Ms. Marzouk: Absolutely. Leadership was present at the university of california and cal state campuses and in fact gave sermons and speeches on those campuses.
▶ 3:01:17Sen. Hawley: For all we know, the money could have gone there. Thank you for your indulgence, chairman. We need to find out where the money has gone. This is a scandal. We need to find out how taxpayer money has ended up in the hands of another organization with terrorist ties.
▶ 3:01:32Chair Cornyn: Senator klobuchar.
▶ 3:01:37Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you very much. I would like to send my condolences to the family of sarah beckstrom. Her death is heartbreaking. She volunteered to work on thanksgiving. We are also praying for the recovery of andrew wolfe. Their shooter needs to be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
▶ 3:01:56Sen. Klobuchar: But today we are talking about something else which is the vetting process and what we can do to strengthen our system in more practical and effective ways to strengthen national security while honoring the service of those who served with our troops in afghanistan. I have led bipartisan rent -- legislation with a number of conservatives and senators, it has yet to pass.
▶ 3:02:32Sen. Klobuchar: We've headed several provisions and it still has not passed. It is an additional layer of vetting for afghans in the U.S. here on a temporary basis as part of a process to adjust their status. One version of it with several changes was included in a bipartisan education bill in 2024. I just have questions first of all, to you, Mr. yousify.
▶ 3:03:03Sen. Klobuchar: It is widely known the motto of the marines is semper fidelis, always faithful. As I see it, you have lived up to that motto twice of first as an interpreter for the U.S. government and also as a marine. What have those words meant to you and as you remember other afghans who served and sacrificed alongside U.S. forces, how should the idea of being faithful apply to them?
▶ 3:03:28Mr. Yousify: Semper fidelis, madame senator. The motto, it goes back with a long history in the marine corps. Being always faithful is, the people and the communities I'm involved in in michigan, there are over 200 communities and most of them from zero minutes.
▶ 3:03:54Mr. Yousify: They prove it every day by paying their taxes, going to work, sending their kids to school, making doctor appointments, making sure they live to the american standards and they are every day doing their best to make this place home.
▶ 3:04:10Sen. Klobuchar: Thank you very much. Mr. blackburn, thank you for your remarkable service in uniform as a green beret and dedication to helping afghan allies. As you know, many american organizations, american legion, vfw, supported the bipartisan legislation I referenced to provide afghans who undergo additional vetting with some kind of a pathway to permanent residency.
▶ 3:04:39Sen. Klobuchar: Our bipartisan bill with several republicans would apply the comprehensive vetting standard used in other parole status cases and go into improving this, but it is something that has not been done in any systematic way. You need a carrot and a stick here and I think we need to look at something like this. Biometrics, in person interviews, security and intel agencies, medical screenings, and getting conditional status.
▶ 3:05:10Sen. Klobuchar: Again, the department of homeland security would have to verify. As I noted, this was part of an earlier quarter agreement. Can you elaborate on why american veterans have been some of the most outspoken supporters of afghan allies from helping with the withdrawal, to settling alongside them and going to immigration hearings?
▶ 3:05:31Mr. Blackburn: Yes. I think earlier a senator spoke to a moral injury. I think that's what happened when we saw in august 2020 one with our afghan partners. And from that cap point, we felt the need to do something positive to affect their lives. That's why we came together in these meshed networks to figure out what to do, but to do it legally.
▶ 3:06:01Mr. Blackburn: As you spoke to just now, the bill you have pending, that process is what we wanted to be part of. We wanted to be part of something positive to help people that worked with us, that fought with us. That died alongside of us, and their families. And we could not turn our back on them, even though we were going through a catastrophic event at the time.
▶ 3:06:28Mr. Blackburn: That is why I believe veterans, and myself and others, have poured their life -- some people, some of us have poured our life savings into this. I know it sounds strange.
▶ 3:06:39Sen. Klobuchar: I know you have. And it's about keeping this covenant.
▶ 3:06:43Mr. Blackburn: Liberate the oppressed, that's what we are doing.
▶ 3:06:51Sen. Klobuchar: I would like to ask one more question of Mr. hankinson. The afghan siv program has had support in the senate for many years. These issues are -- visas are issued for faithful and valuable service to the U.S. even as other pathways closed in the last years, these have remained.
▶ 3:07:17Sen. Klobuchar: My legislation, our bipartisan legislation would improve the sib program and make it better and more efficient. From your experience, what process preforms would you recommend prioritizing and have you found vetting processes you think would be helpful?
▶ 3:07:32Mr. Hankinson: When I looked at the original sib process used in kabul, and this visa was expanded beyond the normal employees as it was typically used in the iraqi and afghan populations, it seemed to be pretty stringent. Mr. yousif he explained how he went through it. It was careful, but the standards were dropped massively during the evacuation crisis.
▶ 3:08:02Mr. Hankinson: Then they created parole and other pathways, which had none of the controls. So if ever we were to resume processing siv is, the controls and processes would have to go back to the way it was. We need these people and we had all the same documentation and interviews we had originally.
▶ 3:08:23Sen. Klobuchar: Appreciate it. Thank you all.
▶ 3:08:26Chair Cornyn: Mr. hankinson, I think to me, you made one of the most important points of this hearing when it comes to the vetting. The challenges of vetting afghan nationals and from a war-torn country, like afghanistan, controlled by a terrorist organization like the television .
▶ 3:08:52Chair Cornyn: That is the assumption of the federal government, that no information basically meant these nationals were fined to come into the country. Even though fraud is rampant, even though there may be no record because of the circumstances of the individual, we don't even know their date of birth.
▶ 3:09:17Chair Cornyn: I don't even know how you actually identify in a database who a person is if you don't have basic biographical information. But would you just read, repeat or restate your concerns about considering the absence of evidence, evidence of adequate vetting?
▶ 3:09:40Mr. Hankinson: Thank you for the question. Indeed, I think cbp's guidance officially during the crisis when they were bringing people in in the thousands, in the absence of derogatory information, let them in. In other words, no information, we would assume means no information. But when you don't have an accurate birthday or name, we know there are no accurate criminal records.
▶ 3:10:09Mr. Hankinson: To talk about an afghan database, you can talk about afghan rocket ships. There are things that just don't exist in the remote part of the country and many other countries which I've served in. Vetting is only as good as the databases and information from which you are pinging and assuming there's nothing there because there's no record in a U.S. database is a mistake.
▶ 3:10:32Chair Cornyn: Ms. smart zoo, -- marzouk, you mentioned that cair was an unindicted co-conspirator in a 2000 eight case involving the holy land in texas.
▶ 3:11:07Chair Cornyn: Do you believe that sort of funding to nongovernmental organizations represents a failure of adequate and verifiable vetting?
▶ 3:11:28Ms. Marzouk: I believe that there was a federal oversight problem after 9/11, all federal contracts were supposed to have terrorism writers to make sure the federal money we were handing out did not go to support terrorism. The way the structure was set up, the federal government made it go to the states. When the states gave the money to nonprofits, those terrorism writers were not present and there was not sufficient oversight.
▶ 3:11:49Chair Cornyn: Just to repeat what senator hawley said in his rhetorical question is that we are asking an organization with ties to terrorism to vet afghan nationals for terrorist ties. Is that correct?
▶ 3:12:04Ms. Marzouk: That's correct. As I mentioned in my testimony, in the application in california, cair california touted their experience with inadmissibility grounds related to terrorism. They were saying that they could coach clients how to get around terrorism screening.
▶ 3:12:27Chair Cornyn: As you may know in november 2020 five, the governor of my state, designated cair and the muslim brotherhood as a terrorist organization and transnational criminal organization. In this case, a state proclamation prohibits them from acquiring land in the state and authorizes heightened enforcement against affiliates.
▶ 3:12:52Chair Cornyn: There's also been allegations made about the promotion of things like sharia law and exclusion of people who are not of the muslim faith from various enclaves, known in one instance as epic, which is a real estate development in the state. Do you have any idea whether this sort of diversion of funds to an organization like this, is that an isolated event?
▶ 3:13:19Ms. Marzouk: I don't believe it to be isolated. I think it requires federal oversight to review all the contracts that went from hhs to the states and then to the nonprofits. As I explained, that money was purposefully obscured and I believe it is a systemic failure.
▶ 3:13:36Chair Cornyn: Of course, anybody who follows the news knows that the scandal now unfolding in minnesota with regarded -- regard to the somali community and serious allegations of welfare fraud, accepting federal government funds and yet providing no services in response to those funds, really we don't have any way of knowing if that is just the tip of the iceberg.
▶ 3:14:05Chair Cornyn: So I agree with you, it bears further investigation and I can assure you we will do that. Turning it over to senator padilla.
▶ 3:14:16Sen. Padilla: Thank you. Echoing senator whitehouse's question in the first panel, I would like to ask this panel, who here served in afghanistan, please raise your hand. Thank you.
▶ 3:14:37Sen. Padilla: Not that it disqualifies the other witnesses from the conversation, but I do think it highlights a very very important perspective and insight into your comments and remarks. Mr. yousify, I was going to ask you to speak to your motivations for having served and to continue to serve but I think you've spoken so eloquently about that already. Mr.
▶ 3:15:05Sen. Padilla: Blackburn, I was similarly going to ask you your perspective. Not just our withdrawal from afghanistan, as faulty as it was in 2021, but the efforts we make to support those who served alongside U.S. service members. You have already spoken eloquently about that. So my final question for the two of you is this.
▶ 3:15:34Sen. Padilla: You were a patient throughout the first panel, there were a lot of questions from both sides of the aisle here and you participated in the second panel. Is there any topic, any question or issue that has come up that you want to further add to a response that you think is important for us to hear that you did not get a chance to weigh in on?
▶ 3:16:00Mr. Yousify: Thank you, senator padilla. The one thing I want to bring here to the senate, as I want to talk about it, the biggest thing is I'm totally heartbroken with what happened in D.C. like I said, I lost another sister, a brother is critically injured and is in the hospital. We cannot replace sarah beckstrom. Let me make this clear. The only thing I want to emphasize is crime is individual.
▶ 3:16:30Mr. Yousify: We cannot collectively punish all the afghans, specifically and especially those who served among us or served with us and who are serving among us right now. It took a lot of courage to come here in front of the camera when you have family back home in afghanistan when the taliban is doing this to your homes and coming here and tearing apart everything.
▶ 3:16:56Mr. Yousify: It doesn't take just courage to come here and in list and start service and do four years active for five years reserve, it takes courage to be in front of the world and watch you to expose what is going on. We don't see this in the media. We don't see this. I have right now tens of national guard and reserve, they have t5 clearance, which is top secret clearance because they were working with intel.
▶ 3:17:25Mr. Yousify: Their families are stuck in qatar, their families are stuck hiding. If you google any of our names right now, you will see we will pop up on one of the websites. The only thing I'm asking, I came forward to talk here, because I see we are collectively punishing by literally stopping the siv program and not keeping our words. And these pictures do not lie.
▶ 3:17:57Sen. Padilla: Specific question for you. A couple of my colleagues have raised the issue of being able to remember your birthdate. Do you have a unique appreciation on what that means from the afghan perspective?
▶ 3:18:13Mr. Yousify: Absolutely. Afghanistan has been in a word for over 40 years. How many people were educated? The educated ones will have birthdays remembered. My mom, when I was born, she wrote it in her notebook because she was a physician assistant. But among all these people working in the U.S., they were not all interpreters.
▶ 3:18:37Mr. Yousify: They were mechanics, they were workers, they were kb armed workers that would clean the base, beautification, guards. Most of them did not come from an educated family. They would look at you and say, ok you look 13 years old. So you're 13.
▶ 3:18:56Sen. Padilla: That's very helpful. Thank you.
▶ 3:18:58Mr. Blackburn: Yes. We were working in a house in afghanistan and we were helping with the birthing process of afghan women. There was no certificate given, no identification. That was how the world worked at that time. I would also like to speak to vetting. As far as the touch points that we have, people like nadeem yousify were vetted because they worked with us.
▶ 3:19:28Mr. Blackburn: You had to have a personal touch point. Something that we could recommend with food and safety. It's 2025, I think we should figure something out with that and then we can get away from the conversation about particular dates. The other thing is I'm extremely proud to be here with all of you guys in the senate panel, to hear you guys were to the process. We have given her life to security of the country. We don't want it to stop.
▶ 3:19:59Mr. Blackburn: Whatever it takes, we can do this. But we should not lose our humanity in the process. Mental health, you all spoke about that quite a lot. I think it's very difficult being a soldier who does not have a mental health issue to recognize people and understand why someone does have a mental health issue. Particularly with soldiers, that are committing suicide.
▶ 3:20:27Mr. Blackburn: I just don't understand it and many of us don't, so we wrestle with it. What I wrestle with mostly is why I can't understand it better and help them. So post entry to the united states I believe becomes very important for anyone that we bring here. There needs to be some level of oversight. There needs to be some level of supervision. And it is good governance to do that. We do that in our networks.
▶ 3:20:59Mr. Blackburn: We do not leave our partners alone. We help them through the process. I think it is very important. The other 77,000 folks you all are speaking to, I can't speak to that. I'm speaking to the people we help. It's critical. It's what makes us different from anybody else in this world. Our humanity and how we approach it. So thank you for that.
▶ 3:21:25Sen. Padilla: Thank you very very much.
▶ 3:21:33Chair Cornyn: I want to express my gratitude again to each of you for your patience -- >> Mr. chairman, may I ask?
▶ 3:21:38Chair Cornyn: I'm sorry, I did not see you there. Do you have a final question?
▶ 3:21:44Sen. Blumenthal: I have two quick questions. Thank you all for being here. Take you in particular Mr. blackburn, Mr. yousify, for your service to our nation. Humanity is certainly important. You are right. Our adherence to values and the rule of law are what distinguish us from all the other nations in the world in my view. They are what makes us the greatest country in the history of the world.
▶ 3:22:17Sen. Blumenthal: It isn't only the example of our power, it's the power of our example. It matters. Mr. yousify, I was struck by your testimony about your love for america before you came here . About your desire to serve in afghanistan.
▶ 3:22:37Sen. Blumenthal: And your description of what it meant to be an interpreter not only in conveying words, but also discerning the threat environment and what was happening in terms of situational awareness.
▶ 3:22:55Sen. Blumenthal: I'm very conscious of this, having been to afghanistan a number of times during the conflicts they are also having a son who served in helmet, who depended on his interpreter for the kind of service that you provided so many others. And then of course your service in the marine corps here.
▶ 3:23:18Sen. Blumenthal: The fact that 300, at least 300 interpreters and others who served our troops have perished because of siding with us. But even if you don't care about humanity, we should care about how our troops are served in the future.
▶ 3:23:43Sen. Blumenthal: When we put them in harm's way and we depend on interpreters, translators, guides, guards, in those countries who put their lives on the line because we promised them that we will look out for their safety if things go south.
▶ 3:24:07Sen. Blumenthal: So I want to suggest that the presumption that vetting should be applied is absolutely right, but there should also be a presumption that we keep our promises and allow public servants who helped our troops and diplomats to come to this country, I would like to ask you, Mr.
▶ 3:24:36Sen. Blumenthal: Yousify, how the promised to come to this country figured into your helping our troops. Did you rely on that promise?
▶ 3:24:47Mr. Yousify: I absolutely did. I can't say for security reasons the names of my special agents and intelligence analysts that I worked with. If it wasn't for them, I would be six feet deep somewhere in afghanistan right now laying down. So this was a big change for me. They gave me a new life, basically. I owe this country a lot.
▶ 3:25:16Mr. Yousify: That's how I feel like I will be paying back through my service to this country.
▶ 3:25:22Sen. Blumenthal: And you will continue to pay back to this country.
▶ 3:25:25Mr. Yousify: Absolutely. The service never stops.
▶ 3:25:31Sen. Blumenthal: I know a lot of our allies, who come to this country, I was involved in helping many get out of afghanistan, enabling some of the planes to go in when there was still chaotic disorganization and we were able to extract many of them who were in danger, and I've come to know some of them. One of them was a guest of mine at the state of the union. And I see how they continue to give back to our great country.
▶ 3:26:07Sen. Blumenthal: Members of the afghanistan community who have come here. We are a better country not only because of their service in afghanistan but also because of people like yourself who have come here to enrich and strengthen our nation in countless ways. So I want to thank you for your service. And Mr.
▶ 3:26:27Sen. Blumenthal: Blackburn, you are absolutely right to call attention to mental health issues faced by all of our veterans who may be vulnerable to them, coming to this country, and back to the country they love facing invisible wounds of war.
▶ 3:26:50Sen. Blumenthal: I'm the ranking member on the veterans affairs committee and it's been my priority to try to provide more resources and treatment for troops and as I indicated in my first round of questions, we need to pay attention to refugees who come here, who are vetted but are suffering ptsd, which cannot be discerned necessarily in the vetting process any more than the troops can be siphoned into different categories when they come back.
▶ 3:27:21Sen. Blumenthal: Thank you, Mr. chairman.
▶ 3:27:21Chair Cornyn: Thank you senator blumenthal. I believe senator padilla has a few closing remarks.
▶ 3:27:29Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chair. I think all the witnesses -- I thank all the witnesses in both panels for your patience here, longer than most hearings for good reason. It's an important and complex topic we have discussed here today. A couple of remarks in closing.
▶ 3:27:51Sen. Padilla: Earlier in the hearing, somebody made reference to a part from siv program, april program that they were not aware that congress had any part in creating. So for the record, the parole entry was codified in the 1960's but its use preceded back to the immigration and nationality act. Important to recognize that for the record.
▶ 3:28:20Sen. Padilla: Second, the topic here today because it was portrayed differently by different members. Clearly this was not a conversation about supporting service members and veterans or afghan refugees, or even public safety because if it was, we would discuss the resources diverted away from those important functions and missions, away from counterterrorism that we hope and pray are soon returned to those important missions.
▶ 3:28:50Sen. Padilla: Instead, what we walked into was an ongoing effort by the administration and others to exploit a single attack, as heinous as it was, to justify the freezing of all asylum approvals. Because that's what's happening. All asylum approvals frozen despite country of origin.
▶ 3:29:13Sen. Padilla: It's been used to justify the revocation of green cards, to institute new travel bans that encompass nearly one billion people across the globe. Call your attention to the map behind me. Legal immigration now blocked for people by this administration. It is part of a greater effort sadly by the administration to fear mongering and distract from its own failures and a brazen attempt to pit americans against each other.
▶ 3:29:43Sen. Padilla: In boston just last month, as immigrants lined up to take the oath of allegiance at their naturalization ceremony -- think about that. Having been through the process, not just being vetted but tested and interviewed and finally being called with her appointment to become a united states citizen, after years of waiting and following the rules, officials were pulling people out of line. That's not american.
▶ 3:30:15Sen. Padilla: To be targeting a naturalization ceremony for people on the verge of becoming citizens? And as the witnesses showed us today, it is actually patriotic to welcome those who put their lives on the line to protect our service members. Mr. yousify, I am proud to call you a fellow citizen of the united states, just like I'm proud to call Mr. blackburn a fellow citizen of the united states.
▶ 3:30:46Sen. Padilla: So while we have discussed the vetting and screening process of afghans and talked about keeping america safe, I can't help but observe the deflection and distraction by the administration, because their approval ratings are taking a nosedive, and the maga coalition is fractured.
▶ 3:31:11Sen. Padilla: The truth is, the real issue here is so many afghan refugees continue to struggle. Not just with the trauma of war, but the frustration and anxiety of an uncertain legal future here in the united states. Fact. All too often that frustration has led zero units veterans, for example, to acts of self-harm or attempts at suicide. That's devastating. That should be heartbreaking for all of us.
▶ 3:31:42Sen. Padilla: It is an urgent reminder of the need to invest more in lifesaving mental health resources and other types of support. Not less. What we have seen this year through budget cuts and doge and cuts and clawbacks, etc., is the opposite of support for veterans and allies that have earned it.
▶ 3:32:05Sen. Padilla: Instead of talking about safety today, we have talked about the exploitation of a horrible incident that took place just before thanksgiving to harm a whole class of people. But I refuse to let that happen. I will continue to work with my colleagues to do what we should be doing, to recognize and honor the bravery and sacrifices of our service members, but also our afghan allies. And to that end Mr.
▶ 3:32:32Sen. Padilla: Chairman, I would like to enter into the record a statement from more than 200 former members of the afghan air force and afghan special mission describing their service and asking for us to honor our promise to them.
▶ 3:32:51Chair Cornyn: Without objection.
▶ 3:32:52Sen. Padilla: Thank you, Mr. chair.
▶ 3:32:58Chair Cornyn: Withoutchair
▶ 3:32:59Cornyn: Belaboring the issue, I think it's a matter of priorities. The first responsibility of the U.S. government is to protect the safety of americans. Everything else is secondary. That doesn't diminish the contribution made by afghan allies, but the idea that you would sacrifice the safety of american citizens in order to allow unvented individuals to come into the country is dangerous as sarah beckstrom has
▶ 3:33:30Cornyn: Discovered sadly. With that we will conclude the hearing. The record will stay open for one week. For members to submit extra to the record. Thank you for all being here and your contribution to this hearing. It is adjourned. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap.org]