|
Rep. Yvette Herrell: After visiting Holloman AFB, where 5,000 Afghans are living, I have a lot of questions
[FOXNEWS] Last week I visited Holloman Air Force Base in the Second Congressional District of New Mexico, which I represent in Congress. The base now hosts an estimated 5,000 Afghan evacuees.Unfortunately, I left Holloman Air Force Base with more questions than answers. High ranking military brass and officials from Homeland Security and the State Department could not provide facts about the identities of those in the "Village." They did not know (or would not say) how many were U.S. citizens, how many were Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, or how many were merely people that made it onto our airplanes. Even more importantly, they could not say how many refugees had roles serving alongside U.S. forces. It is puzzling that the evacuation effort was sold to the American people as a rescue of Afghan interpreters for the U.S. military, yet I was told that the "Village" at Holloman is forced to employ at least 50 outside interpreters to bridge the significant language gap. There were even fewer answers about the vetting process, which is essential to the safety and security of American citizens. Government officials could not confirm whether they had access to criminal and security databases in Afghanistan and other Middle Eastern countries, while still insisting that all refugees had gone through extensive vetting prior to being flown to the United States, contradictory to briefings I have received in Washington. They insisted that even the simplest answers were classified but did not offer to move to a classified setting at the base for further discussion. The 9/11 Commission Report explicitly named a failed vetting process and lax immigration enforcement as reasons that terrorist hijackers were able carry out their attacks 20 years ago. We cannot risk such failures again. I am thankful that we were able to save as many allies as we could from Afghanistan following a rushed evacuation of over 120,000 people to our shores. However, a lie repeated often enough remains a lie... it is essential to ascertain who they are. The 9/11 Commission Report explicitly named a failed vetting process and lax immigration enforcement as reasons that terrorist hijackers were able carry out their attacks 20 years ago. We cannot risk such failures again. Most alarming, Homeland Security and the Department of State all but admitted they played fast and loose with refugee procedures and immigration law. They will be condensing an 18-month process into mere weeks for an SIV program already rampant with fraud. They imported asylum seekers to America without visas to then give them work permits and parole, circumventing a process for vetting refugees that usually takes place on foreign soil. They could not provide the statutory authority for any of it. In addition, the very notion of third country resettlement in the Middle East seemed to be a particularly controversial idea, as if the suggestion that resettlement in areas with similar culture, language, religion, and geography was offensive. Posted by: Fred 2021-09-15 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=612661 |