The Trump administration said on Thursday that it was reviewing all asylum cases that were approved under the Biden administration, signaling a broad crackdown in the wake of the shooting of two National Guard members.
Officials said that a 29-year-old Afghan man shot the Guard members and that he had entered the United States through a Biden-era program that brought tens of thousands of Afghans into the country. The accusation has renewed questions about the vetting process for a variety of entry programs, including asylum.
Tricia McLaughlin, a Homeland Security Department spokeswoman, in announcing the review of asylum cases, accused the previous administration of failing to vet the applicants “on a massive scale.”
The man identified as the suspect was said to have worked with the C.I.A. and fled Afghanistan in 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a program born after the sudden fall of the Afghan government in 2021, when the United States withdrew its forces and the Taliban took control of the country.
At the time, the Biden administration faced accusations of abandoning allies in the country, as fears grew that those who helped the U.S. military and people involved in civil society, like journalists, would face serious threats.
Biden administration officials insisted then that Afghan nationals who came through the program had been properly vetted and screened, though an inspector general report later found significant flaws in the process.
“The screening and vetting process involves biometric and biographic screenings conducted by intelligence, law enforcement, and counterterrorism professionals,” the agency said in a statement in September 2021, days after the evacuation of Americans and allies as the Taliban took control.
Homeland Security Department officials said that people who failed the checks would not be allowed to fly into the United States and that if Afghans who had already arrived and received further checks had any concerning information they could be turned back.
An advocacy group for Afghan nationals brought to the United States, #AfghanEvac, said in a statement on Wednesday that the shooting was not a reflection of the wider Afghan community. “This violent act does not reflect the Afghan community, which continues to contribute across the United States and undergoes some of the most extensive vetting of any immigrant population.”
According to a 2022 audit of the vetting process, it was supposed to include obtaining biometric information from the Afghans, running the information through databases to ensure there wasn’t any “derogatory” information or potential threats, and another inspection when the Afghans arrived at U.S. airports.
But the report, from the Homeland Security Department inspector general’s office, found serious flaws in the process.
The office found that the department “did not always have critical data to properly screen, vet, or inspect Afghan evacuees arriving” and that “some of the information used to vet evacuees through U.S. government databases, such as name, D.O.B., identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete or missing.”
The report found that the Department of Homeland Security had allowed at least two people into the United States who posed security risks and might have admitted more “individuals of concern.”
The agency disputed that claim at the time, criticizing the inspector general’s report and saying it had properly vetted all the Afghans who arrived in the United States.
“At times, D.H.S. may be alerted to new derogatory information after individuals are admitted or paroled,” the department said in 2022. In the two cases in the report, “D.H.S. and our interagency partners immediately acted upon this new derogatory information; this is indicative of a vetting system that works as designed.”
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
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