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 came to the United States after the Biden administration’s troubled 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The review examined 678 applications submitted by Afghans resettled through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW). Investigators identified 303 undisclosed aliases, 23 missing security checks and more than 150 additional documentation problems.
According to the report, the frequency and nature of the mistakes indicate that US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) may have missed chances to connect names listed by applicants with potentially damaging information. That could undermine the accuracy of alien registration files, which are later used to guide immigration decisions and enforcement actions.
Two of the cases involved missing aliases or incomplete records for people who may have been barred from entering the United States under terrorism-related inadmissibility provisions.
In one case, supporting documents for the potentially inadmissible Afghan were missing, meaning a second-level authority never approved the analysis. In the other, the documents were present and had been signed by senior officials, but the form’s box indicating approval or rejection of the analysis was left blank.
The inspector general said the consequences of such errors can differ widely. Some may cause little more than an administrative inconvenience because the same information is available elsewhere, while others could pose national security concerns if USCIS supervisors fail to review the files.
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The investigation began after USCIS employees raised concerns that a 2023 settlement in Ahmed v. DHS required asylum claims to be processed more quickly than the agency believed was necessary for thorough applicant vetting.
However, the report said investigators found no statistically significant rise in the error rate following the September 2023 DHS settlement agreement.
Republicans have repeatedly criticized Operation Allies Welcome, the Biden-era program that brought more than 70,000 Afghans to the United States after the chaotic 2021 troop withdrawal.
The Post reported last November that more than 5,000 Afghans admitted through OAW had been flagged over 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, who leads USCIS, accepted all five recommendations issued by the DHS inspector general. He argued, however, that the report did not fully reflect the broader screening, vetting and security safeguards already in place, which he said help limit the effects of administrative mistakes.
In a response included with the report, Edlow wrote that the USCIS Refugee, Asylum and International Operations Directorate’s Asylum Division uses screening, vetting and security-check procedures that are established and comprehensive.