by Jerry Dunleavy
Amidst renewed scrutiny about the poor vetting of Afghan refugees in the wake of the debacle in August 2021, a review of a little-known Biden Administration policy allowing former Taliban government workers to come to the United States is taking center stage.
The Biden Administration implemented a terrorism exemption for Afghan refugees allowing hundreds of low-level “civil servants” from the Taliban government to resettle in the United States in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal and evacuation from the country.
The Biden-led Department of Homeland Security and State Department announced in June 2022 that it had put together new exemptions for purportedly vetted applicants who would otherwise be blocked from the United States — including some former Taliban government workers. The policy allowed hundreds of Afghans to come to the U.S. when they would have previously likely been barred due to terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds (TRIG). This reportedly allowed hundreds of former Taliban government workers to come to the U.S.
The exemptions were for Afghans who had worked as “civil servants” under the Taliban (both before 9/11 and after August 2021), as well as for Afghans who “supported U.S. military interests” such as participation in resistance movements against the Taliban or the Soviet Army and for Afghans “who provided only certain limited material support to the Taliban or other designated terrorist organizations.”
The Biden administration agencies said that the “new exemptions may apply” to “individuals employed as civil servants in Afghanistan at any time from September 27, 1996 to December 22, 2001 or after August 15, 2021.” These time periods covered both the Taliban’s first stint ruling Afghanistan — when they protected al-Qaeda before and after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and were subsequently overthrown following a U.S. invasion — and the Taliban’s current rule of the country in the wake of the disastrous and chaotic U.S. evacuation in August 2021.
The State Department and DHS added that the exemptions “could include teachers, professors, postal workers, doctors, and engineers, among others” who had worked for the Taliban government, arguing that “some civil servants held these positions prior to the Taliban announcing their so-called ‘interim government’ and continued in their roles due to pressure, intimidation, or other hardship. In other instances, individuals used their positions to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban, often at great personal risk.”
Connections to the Taliban not a disqualifying factor
The agencies said the exemptions did not include Afghans “who held high-level positions, worked for certain ministries, or directly assisted violent Taliban activities or activities in which the individual’s civil service was motivated by an allegiance to the Taliban” nor Afghan individuals “who share the goals or ideology of the Taliban, provided preferential treatment to them, or who intended to support the Taliban through their activities.”
The State Department and DHS under the Trump administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they would maintain this TRIG exemption for former Taliban government workers.
“President Trump’s State Department has paused visa issuance for ALL individuals traveling on Afghan passports,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on X on Friday. “The United States has no higher priority than protecting our nation and our people.”
Just the News previously reported that the Biden Administration’s chaotic evacuation from Kabul in August 2021 was marred by a lack of planning and significant security vetting flaws for the tens of thousands of Afghans airlifted out of the country amidst the Taliban takeover, according to multiple watchdog reviews and witness testimony.
The U.S. brought out tens of thousands of Afghan refugees in August 2021 during the chaotic non-combatant evacuation operation (NEO) out of Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA). Inspectors for DHS and the Pentagon, as well as State Department employees, have all detailed serious flaws with vetting the Afghans who were airlifted out of the capital city of Kabul amidst the Taliban takeover of the country.
Fox News reported in January of this year that, according to a DHS report to Congress for the fiscal year of 2024, “there were 6,848 TRIG exemptions” last year, with the majority — 6,653 — being exemptions for refugees. The outlet noted that this 2024 figure was much higher than years past, with 2,085 such waivers issued in the 2023 fiscal year, 603 such waivers issued in 2022, 191 waivers in 2021, and 361 in 2020.
The DHS document for 2024 reportedly said that 29 waivers had been given to Afghan allies who had supported U.S. interests in Afghanistan, while 374 were for “civil servants.” The outlet added that “3,134 were for those who provided certain limited support or insignificant material support to a Tier I or Tier II terror organization, under the 2022 exemption announced by DHS.”
Fox News said that “most of the remaining exemptions (2,946) were given under a 2007 exercise of authority for support given under duress.”
The outlet had first reported in October 2021 that this exemptions policy was going to be implemented, saying it had originally been considered in January 2017 during the Obama administration but hadn’t been put into action then.
Then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas released statements in June 2022 defending the move.
Mayorkas said that “doctors, teachers, engineers, and other Afghans, including those who bravely and loyally supported U.S. forces on the ground in Afghanistan at great risk to their safety, should not be denied humanitarian protection and other immigration benefits due to their inescapable proximity to war or their work as civil servants.” He argued that “these exemptions will allow eligible individuals who pose no national security or public safety risk to receive asylum, refugee status, or other legal immigration status, demonstrating the United States’ continued commitment to our Afghan allies and their family members.”
"We remain committed to our Afghan allies and processing Special Immigrant Visa applications as expeditiously as possible, while always protecting our national security. We are working closely with our interagency partners to do so, and today's announcement is an important step forward in that endeavor,” Blinken said.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) released guidance memorandum in August 2022 which sought to justify the Taliban civil servant exemption, arguing that “many individuals who worked in civil service positions in Afghanistan prior to September 27, 1996, continued to do so thereafter” and that “many did so under duress or other situations of hardship. In other instances, individuals used their positions in humanitarian capacities to mitigate the repressive actions of the Taliban regime, often at great personal risk.”
“Some of these civil servants subsequently worked for, or gave assistance to, the International Security Assistance Force, the United States government, or the [Taliban-led] Afghan government that was established after December 22, 2001,” USCIS said. “Some of these individuals continued providing essential government services even after the collapse of the Kabul government on August 15, 2021. This exemption allows the use of discretion to address these and related issues in individual adjudications, and to fulfill the United States’ humanitarian obligations while ensuring the security and integrity of the U.S. immigration system.”
USCIS said that “adjudicators” inside the U.S. government “will review benefit or protection applications, supporting documentation, testimony, and any other relevant information for indications that an individual’s employment as a civil servant may have occurred within the time frame and geographic area under the control of the Taliban.”
A group of then Republican senators — including Rubio — sent an August 2022 letter to Blinken and Mayorkas raising questions about the exemptions' policy.
“We write because the American people deserve an explanation regarding the broad, open-ended nature of this authority for exempting individuals who would otherwise be barred from immigration to the United States for supporting a terrorist organization,” the GOP members of Congress said.
Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the Afghan national who has been charged with shooting two members of the West Virginia National Guard last week, was reportedly a member of the elite Afghan “Zero Unit” forces backed by the CIA — with the U.S. spy agency apparently having struck a 2021 deal with these Afghan commandos to bring thousands of the fighters and their families to the United States.
A number of top Trump administration officials have argued that Lakanwal was not properly vetted, while anonymously sourced reports have said he did receive vetting before being brought to the United States.
Lakanwal, a former member of the National Strike Unit (NSU) forces, which were tied to the CIA and to the former Afghan government’s National Directorate of Security (NDS), reportedly assisted in securing HKIA during the NEO and arrived in the U.S. with his family in September 2021. The Taliban took over in Afghanistan in August 2021 following then-President Joe Biden’s April 2021 go-to-zero directive ordering the full withdrawal of U.S. troops.
Years later, the Afghan fighter drove thousands of miles from the West Coast of the U.S. and is accused of attacking two members of the West Virginia National Guard the day before Thanksgiving last week, killing one and critically wounding the other in what President Donald Trump called "a monstrous, ambush-style attack just steps away from the White House."
Lakanwal has been arrested, and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro charged him with first-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty.
Jerry Dunleavy
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/biden-admin-created-exemption-hundreds-low-level-taliban-civil-servants
No comments:
Post a Comment