- The Washington Times - Thursday, September 21, 2023

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee demanded answers Thursday from the State Department over who is helping Afghans settle into the U.S.

Chairman James Comer said the government didn’t have the capacity to vet the tens of thousands of Afghans who arrived and who have now been dispersed throughout the country under State Department relocation programs.

The Kentucky Republican said Congress needs to know more about that process.

“It is inconceivable that proper vetting procedures were followed during the chaos and disarray of the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan and questions remain to the nature of persons enrolled in domestic resettlement programs,” he said. “It is incumbent upon Congress to gain more transparency into the programs that have been instated to accomplish resettlement efforts and gain answers for the American people.”

His inquiry comes two years after the botched U.S. troop withdrawal and the fall of the government in Kabul to the Taliban.

In the ensuing chaos, President Biden vowed to rescue Afghans who had assisted America’s 20-year war effort. But many of those rescued showed no such ties to the U.S. Instead, they were Kabul residents who were able to make it through the Taliban cordon to reach the U.S.-controlled airport.

Once here, most were kept at military bases for a period of time and then sent to settle in communities under the purview of several U.S. agencies.

Mr. Comer said the State Department’s Coordinator for Afghan Relocation, or CARE, is at the center of those efforts.

He asked the department to detail CARE’s activities and, in particular, its rules for hiring and vetting employees and contractors who carry out the Afghan relocations.

His demands came as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new deportation amnesty for Afghans who have reached the U.S., including those brought out in the airlift.

Officially known as Temporary Protected Status, the program grants an 18-month stay of deportation and offers work permits to Afghans.

Most of those brought out in the airlift already qualify for a similar protection under Mr. Mayorkas’s power of “parole.”

Mr. Mayorkas’s new TPS covers some 3,100 Afghans already in the program and 14,600 others who arrived since his last designation.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

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