Untitled Document

[00:00:00] Thank you very much. Um, Senator Cornin, [00:00:03] um, thanks to all the witnesses for [00:00:04] being here. Mr. Alman, if I could just [00:00:06] start with you. You are the deputy in [00:00:08] inspector general for the agency charged [00:00:10] with overseeing the Afghan parole [00:00:12] program. Is that correct? [00:00:13] >> That's correct. [00:00:14] >> In 2022, your office found that [00:00:17] President Biden's DHS allowed some [00:00:19] Afghans into the country before they [00:00:21] were fully vetted, including, if I [00:00:24] remember correctly, one who had been [00:00:25] liberated from prison by the Taliban. Do [00:00:27] I have that correct? [00:00:28] >> That's correct. I think we're going to [00:00:29] see this exhibit maybe over the side of [00:00:32] my shoulder here. I just want to read [00:00:33] directly from your report. CBP allowed [00:00:35] some evacuees to enter into the United [00:00:37] States who were not fully vetted. CBB [00:00:39] parrolled one ACU evacuee into the [00:00:41] United States who've been liberated from [00:00:42] prison by the Taliban. CBP parrolled [00:00:45] other another evacuee who posed national [00:00:47] security concerns. Now, early reports by [00:00:50] the inspectors general at DoD and the [00:00:52] FBI found that over 50 known or [00:00:54] suspected terrorists had entered the [00:00:57] United States as a result of the Biden [00:01:00] administration screening or lack [00:01:01] thereof. And last month, the director of [00:01:03] national intelligence said that 2,000 [00:01:05] Afghans in America may have ties to [00:01:08] terrorism. That is a very, very big [00:01:10] number. So, I just want to talk a little [00:01:12] bit about how this happened and see if I [00:01:14] can get your help in doing that. Let me [00:01:16] just start with testimony that this [00:01:18] committee, the full committee, the [00:01:19] judiciary committee previously received [00:01:22] in 2021. [00:01:24] Then DHS Secretary uh Alejandro Mayorcus [00:01:28] testified that the administration had a [00:01:30] rigorous vetting process in place. I [00:01:33] think we've got a quote of his here. We [00:01:36] have taken steps, I'm quoting him now, [00:01:37] to make sure that the vetting program is [00:01:40] indeed rigorous. Now, he said, this may [00:01:42] have been in response to a question from [00:01:44] me. He said that indeed uh the the [00:01:46] vetting did deviate from normal refugee [00:01:48] screening. That was an understatement. [00:01:50] But he went on to say, "We have taken [00:01:52] steps to make sure the program is indeed [00:01:55] rigorous." So you investigated the [00:01:58] vetting process. Did you find that the [00:02:01] Biden administration's DHS had a formal [00:02:03] vetting process in place that they [00:02:05] followed carefully? [00:02:07] >> The department did not have a formal [00:02:09] process at the start of the OA. [00:02:11] >> Okay. Can you just say that one more [00:02:12] time? [00:02:13] The department at least could not [00:02:15] provide us with a formal screening and [00:02:17] vetting process at the start of the OAW [00:02:19] process. [00:02:20] >> The department did not have a formal [00:02:22] screening and vetting process in place. [00:02:26] The most that the Biden administration [00:02:27] did according to your investigation was [00:02:29] to run Afghans biometric and [00:02:30] biographical information I think is what [00:02:32] you found like their names and dates of [00:02:34] birth and uh other biographical [00:02:36] information they have they may have [00:02:37] supplied. Is that correct? Are that [00:02:39] broadly correct? That's correct. Until [00:02:41] December of 2021 when they began [00:02:42] requiring in-person interviews. [00:02:44] >> So until that time, for the first [00:02:46] several months, they were relying on [00:02:48] biographical information supplied by the [00:02:51] Afghans as well as some biometrics. Now, [00:02:54] your office found that that approach was [00:02:57] severely flawed partly because many [00:03:00] Afghans did not know their birth dates. [00:03:02] Is that correct? Explain explain this. [00:03:05] >> That's correct. Uh there was missing [00:03:07] information from the OAW population [00:03:09] including first, last names um and date [00:03:11] of birth. There was about 11 to 12,000 [00:03:14] that did not know their date of birth. [00:03:15] >> How many sorry [00:03:16] >> between 11 and 12,000? [00:03:18] >> 11 and 12,000 who who did not which is a [00:03:20] cultural thing I think but obviously [00:03:22] presents an issue for us when doing [00:03:24] vetting. So 11 or 12,000 who were [00:03:26] admitted for whom we didn't even have [00:03:28] their date of birth. That's that's [00:03:30] pretty extraordinary. Let me ask you [00:03:32] this. Did the B administration require [00:03:34] Afghans to show identification at ports [00:03:36] of entry? [00:03:38] >> The department requested identification, [00:03:40] but not all Afghans had formal [00:03:43] identification, such as a passport. We [00:03:44] found over 30,000 that did not have [00:03:46] formal identification. [00:03:48] >> Could you just say that number one more [00:03:49] time? How many who didn't have [00:03:50] identification? [00:03:51] >> I believe the number is actually 36,000. [00:03:54] >> 36,000 who could not show identification [00:03:57] at a port of entry. Here's a quote from [00:04:00] the report. CBP's Concepts of Operations [00:04:02] allowed its officers to admit parole [00:04:04] evacuees into the country without [00:04:05] presenting proper identification [00:04:06] documents, 36,000 of them. That's that's [00:04:11] astounding. [00:04:12] And then my understanding is to do the [00:04:15] the barebones background checks that [00:04:17] were actually performed, DHS, the Biden [00:04:20] DHS sent a list of Afghans to the [00:04:22] Department of Defense and the FBI. That [00:04:24] process would normally take months. [00:04:26] Would it surprise you to hear that the [00:04:28] DOJ's inspector general found that the [00:04:30] list of evacuees was submitted to the [00:04:33] FBI via email and the FBI was given two [00:04:36] hours to respond? [00:04:39] >> I can't confirm that. I can just say [00:04:41] that it was there's very limited time to [00:04:43] conduct the screening and vetting of [00:04:44] those evacuees. [00:04:45] >> Yeah, here's the quote. It's over my [00:04:46] shoulder. I think DoD and CBB created [00:04:48] lists of Afghan refugees which were [00:04:50] submitted to the FBI via email with only [00:04:53] two hours to respond. Let me just ask [00:04:56] you finally, I know my time is about [00:04:57] expired. Just when it comes to to [00:04:59] interviews, normally refugees, SIV [00:05:02] applicants are required to attend an [00:05:03] in-person interview. Uh Mr. Edelman, did [00:05:06] did DHS systematically interview [00:05:08] evacuees before they were admitted? Was [00:05:10] this was all of were all the evacuees [00:05:12] interviewed? [00:05:13] >> No. [00:05:14] >> Did they systematically conduct mental [00:05:16] health screenings? [00:05:17] >> Not that I'm aware of. [00:05:18] >> Well, all of the above should have been [00:05:20] done. and the fact that tens of [00:05:21] thousands were admitted without so much [00:05:23] as an ID, without a birth date, I think [00:05:25] it's really no surprise why we are where [00:05:28] we are. Thank you, Mr.