Republican members of a U.S. House reform committee want an investigation into the resettlement of Afghan refugees in the U.S., according to a letter signed by New Mexico U.S. House Rep. Yevette Herrell and another GOP lawmaker.
The investigation would assist Republican members of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in understanding the vetting and resettling of Afghan refugees in the U.S. "and ensuring their safe integration into American communities," the letter said.
The House Committee has 24 Republican members, including James Comer of Kentucky, and 31 Democrat members, including Carolyn Maloney of New York.
U.S. Sen. Yvette Herrell
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"Ranking Member @RepJamesComer joined me in requesting that the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General investigate irregularities and problems with vetting Afghan nationals," Herrell tweeted on Wednesday.
Herrell represents southern New Mexico's 2nd congressional district. Comer was the second signatory of the letter.
The letter asks for information on the total number of Afghans being resettled in the U.S., how the Biden Administration defines "vulnerable Afghans," and whether the screening and vetting process was "adequate to ensure bad actors do not make it into the United States."
In their letter addressed to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari, Herrell and Comer wrote on behalf of committee Republican members to say they were concerned about how tens of thousands of Afghans were evacuated into the United.States after their country fell to the Taliban in August.
The letter called for the Department of Homeland Security and Cuffari's Office of Inspector General to investigate the resettlement of those Afghan refugees in the U.S., paying particular attention to vetting procedures and who among the refugees could be eligible for a U.S. citizenship.
"Most of the Afghans the Biden Administration brought to the United States fall within a nebulous category of 'vulnerable Afghans' who have simply been paroled into the country for an initial period of two years," the letter said.
Those classified as "vulnerable" are processed "outside all the recognized lawful status categories," the letter said.
Objections to the administration's handling of the refugees has recently been heightened after a resolution was passed that included $6.3 billion for resettlement funding to help an estimated 95,000 Afghans over the next year, Fox News reported.
"The Administration made this request after the evacuation - further evidence that the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan was not well planned or executed," the letter said.
Last month, Herrell visited Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo and saw first hand the conditions of the thousands of Afghan refugees housed there. The media was not permitted access, but Herrell told CBS 4 News at the time that she was impressed by what she saw.
"I can't emphasize enough how impressed I was with what the facility looked like in terms of what our military has been able to do in relatively a short period of time to house that many people," she said.
Herrell also said at the time that she understood the refugees at the air force base are vetted before they arrived but that there were still many unanswered questions and that she planned a letter to the Biden administration with "pointed questions."
In a later Facebook post, Herrell commented that the American people deserve transparency in the vetting process of Afghan refugees, "but unfortunately, they aren't getting it."
