Afghan Evacuees

Floor Speech

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Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, since 2021, I sounded the alarm about the former Biden administration's failure to vet Afghan evacuees. Instead of coming clean, the previous administration dismissed and failed to answer my oversight request.

For years, the Biden administration hid from the American people known vulnerabilities in the vetting process that goes under the names of Operation Allies Welcome and Operation Allies Refuge. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general eventually exposed those vetting failures, and, just last month, so too did the Department of Justice inspector general. Both inspectors general substantiated vetting failures that I have raised for years.

Recently, I was informed by the Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard of new information. My office has been told that of the more than 100,000 Afghan evacuees, as of August 2022, 1.6 percent had links to terrorism or other derogatory information. It happens that that is over 1,600 people who, at that time, posed a potential threat to our homeland and our people.

At that time, all 1,600 were located in the United States. Now, naturally, since then, some may have left, some may have been deported, and it is unclear who remains.

Based on past briefings provided by the FBI, it is clear they began to investigate these evacuees years ago. I strongly urge the current FBI and intelligence community leadership to aggressively investigate those evacuees who require it and bring these matters to a close.

I am also calling on the Trump administration to ensure that its findings are declassified to the fullest extent possible. Why? Because the public has a right to be made aware--in fact, fully aware--of the Biden administration's failure to vet Afghan evacuees.

Transparency brings accountability, and in this case, that transparency is important because it is a matter of public safety.

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