A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general’s report released Monday found vetting problems in 40% of a sample of asylum applications filed by Afghans who entered the United States after the Biden administration’s troubled withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The review examined 678 applications submitted by Afghans resettled through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). Investigators identified 303 unreported aliases, 23 missing security checks and more than 150 additional documentation deficiencies.
“The prevalence and type of errors suggest US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may have missed opportunities to potentially link names provided by applicants to derogatory information,” the report said. Such failures, it added, could undermine the accuracy of alien registration files used in future immigration enforcement and administrative decisions.
Two cases involving omitted aliases and incomplete records concerned individuals who may have been barred from entering the United States on “terrorism-related grounds,” according to the inspector general.
In one case, supplemental documents related to the potentially inadmissible Afghan were missing, meaning a “second level authority” never approved the analysis. In the other, the paperwork was present and signed by senior officials, but the box showing whether the analysis had been approved or rejected was left blank.
The report said the consequences of such administrative mistakes can range from a minor inconvenience—when the same information is available elsewhere—to a possible national security concern if USCIS supervisors fail to review the affected files.
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The investigation began after USCIS employees raised concerns that a 2023 settlement in Ahmed v. DHS required them to process asylum cases more quickly than the time they believed was necessary for thorough applicant vetting.
However, investigators said they “did not observe a statistically significant increase in error rate after the September 2023 DHS settlement agreement.”
Republicans have repeatedly criticized Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era initiative that brought more than 70,000 Afghans to the United States after the 2021 troop withdrawal.
The Post reported last November that more than 5,000 Afghans admitted through OAW had been flagged for “national security” concerns.
That month, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national resettled in the United States through the program, allegedly opened fire on two National Guard soldiers near the White House. One soldier was killed and the other suffered severe injuries.
Joseph Edlow, the USCIS director, accepted all five recommendations made by the DHS inspector general. He argued, however, that the report did not fully account for the fact that the “administrative errors” occurred within a broader system of established screening, vetting and security safeguards designed to limit their effects.
“The USCIS Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate’s Asylum Division’s screen, vetting and security check procedures are well-established and thorough,” Edlow wrote in a response included with the report.
