55 Afghan Refugees Accepted By Biden May Be Terrorists: Watchdog

The Department of Justice Inspector General confirmed that 55 Afghan refugees accepted under the Biden administration were flagged on the terror watchlist before or during their resettlement in the United States.

The report confirmed longstanding concerns by Republicans in Congress that the Biden administration failed to properly vet the refugees fleeing Taliban rule in the midst of the disastrous U.S. withdrawal and collapse of the American-backed central government.

“I’ve sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021. The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms,” Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a press release. “As if it wasn’t already obvious, the Biden-Harris administration endangered American lives by allowing suspected terrorists to enter the United States and roam free for years.”

Senator Grassley vowed his oversight of the Biden administration’s vetting and resettlement of Afghan refugees would continue.

The report found that as of May 2023, nearly two years after the Afghanistan withdrawal, the Terrorism Screening Center identified 55 Afghan refugees who were “either already on the terrorist watchlist but still made it to a U.S. port of entry as part of the evacuation or were added to the watchlist during the evacuation and resettlement in the United States.”

While many were eventually removed from the watchlist after they were deemed to be no threat, as of July 2024, nine of the individuals remained on the watchlist and were still being tracked by federal law enforcement.