American agencies are rushing to complete security vetting of thousands of Afghan citizens who are in line to be relocated to the U.S., as some lawmakers raise alarms about the risk that terrorists and criminals could slip through.
The rushed and chaotic evacuation effort from the airport in Kabul means that thousands of people are being put on planes before their background vetting is complete. They include many people who already had applied for special immigrant visas after working with U.S. soldiers and diplomats, as well as others who hadn't.
Agencies are doing security screenings while flights are in the air and when refugees arrive at temporary locations before being transferred to the U.S., including Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Italy, Spain and Germany.
"Intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals are conducting screening and security vetting for all SIV [special immigrant visa] applicants and other vulnerable Afghans before they are allowed into the United States," the State Department said in a statement Monday. "We are surging resources to evaluate each case and process these as efficiently as possible to protect homeland security."
Officials declined to say Monday how many, if any, Afghans had been flagged for security concerns in the vetting process or had been denied entry to the U.S.
On the flip side, the Biden administration is facing mounting pressure from veterans and refugee advocates who want to see the U.S. get as many Afghans out of Kabul as possible, saying they can be vetted once they get to safe locations.
The State Department is getting help at the Kabul airport from members of the military. Outside Afghanistan, the Department of Homeland Security has deployed personnel from Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Transportation Security Administration to Bahrain, Germany, Kuwait and Qatar to conduct processing and vetting of Afghans, said Homeland Security spokesman Angelo Fernandez Hernandez.
The goal is to bring in Afghans "who have worked for and on behalf of the United States and other eligible vulnerable Afghans in coordination with Department of Defense and Department of State," Fernandez Hernandez said in a statement.
Customs and border agents are working alongside the FBI and other agencies to conduct the vetting, which includes biometric and biographic screening, the department said. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services also has dedicated resources, including translation services, to expedite the processing of petitions and applications from Afghan citizens.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, blamed President Joe Biden for creating a chaotic vetting process when the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed.
"We want to welcome those that are fully vetted," Ernst said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "That is extremely important that we make sure they are vetted before they touch down on American soil."
The risk was underscored by the U.K.'s armed forces minister. James Heappey said on BBC Radio that people in Kabul who are on his country's no-fly list have tried to get on British evacuation flights.
"There are people trying to take advantage of this process to get into the U.K. to cause us harm," he said.
In the U.S., the State Department, the Homeland Security Department and the FBI are leading the screening process. If there are ongoing security concerns with any refugees who are eventually resettled in the U.S., then the FBI or state and local law enforcement agencies might have to take steps to keep tabs on them, such as doing occasional interviews.
"The FBI supports the U.S. government's interagency efforts on immigration and refugee admittance by serving as one of the agencies that reviews information associated with refugee and immigrant applicants in order to identify potential national security and public safety concerns," the FBI said in a statement.
Biden told reporters Sunday that anyone arriving in the U.S. will have undergone a background check, though it's not clear whether American authorities have as much access to information as they did when the embassy in Kabul was up and running.