Graham, Cornyn, Lee, Cruz, Hawley, Cotton, Tillis, Blackburn Press Mayorkas for Answers on Afghan National Vetting

WASHINGTON – Today, Republican members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are pressing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for more information in light of media reports that suggest Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national recently arrested in connection with a plot to commit a violent attack on behalf of ISIS in the United States on Election Day, was not vetted for a special immigrant visa as the Biden-Harris Justice Department originally claimed.

U.S. Senators Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Josh Hawley (R-Missouri), Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee) wrote to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in response to media reports that found Tawhedi was never approved for a special immigrant visa and was not “well known to the US government” when he was brought to the country by the Biden-Harris Administration via immigration parole following the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The Senators wrote, “We remain deeply troubled by the increasing likelihood that foreign extremists may successfully exploit the weaknesses of our immigration system or our southern border to commit an act of political violence or an act of terror here on U.S. soil, and the policies of the Biden-Harris administration have only made matters worse.”

They concluded, “This ongoing failure to protect Americans from potential terroristic threats is unacceptable and it is only a matter of time before it yields deadly results. As part of our ongoing oversight of DHS’s use of immigration parole and its response to the heightened threat environment the U.S. finds itself in, we are requesting that you provide to us for review a copy Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi’s alien file (a-file) and any other records related to his parole and vetting he received prior to his arrest, no later than November 1, 2024.”

Read the full text of the letter HERE.

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