Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Some Afghan evacuees in limbo
Dozens red-flagged, wait in Kosovo hoping for U.S. entry
WASHINGTON — Two months after the evacuation of 80,000 Afghans fleeing the Taliban takeover, most have cleared subsequent vetting for admission into the United States.
Some initially raised possible security issues — such as evacuees who shared a name with terrorism suspects — but were absolved on closer scrutiny. But several dozen have been red-flagged, despite having helped the United States during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, because screenings uncovered apparent records of violent crime or links to Islamist militants that follow-up evaluations have not cleared, officials said.
That information has raised the question of what to do with them, leaving them in limbo.
The military transferred most of the still-flagged evacuees — some with relatives — to Camp Bondsteel, a NATO base in Kosovo, which agreed to let Afghans be housed there for up to a year if they stayed on the base. They are designated as requiring further investigation and no final decision has been made about whether they will receive permission to enter the United States, officials said.
But in an acknowledgment that many are likely to be barred from the United States, the Biden administration’s national security team has been meeting to grapple with how to handle them. Officials declined to provide a precise number for the group deemed problematic, saying it fluctuates as the assessment work continues.
A few of the evacuees sent to Camp Bondsteel were later cleared to travel to the United States after further evaluation, they said. But several officials said that of the group of evacuees drawing longer- term scrutiny, those who appear to have committed violent crimes number in the single digits, and several dozen have been flagged for apparent links to Islamist militants — mostly the Taliban.
The internal deliberations about the evacuees deemed problematic have centered on two novel questions, the officials said.
One is short term: whether American troops can detain Afghans if they grow fed up with waiting and decide to walk out of Camp Bondsteel, contrary to the agreement the United States struck with Kosovo. It is not clear what legal authority the military has to hold non-Americans who are not wartime detainees — the evacuees are not — indefinitely abroad.
That scenario may never happen: To date, none has tried to walk off the base, they said. But interviews with several current and former officials suggested that there might not be clear consensus about what guards could or should do in such a situation.
The other question is longerterm: what to do with evacuees ultimately deemed ineligible to come to the United States if diplomatic efforts fail to persuade other countries to take them in.
In light of that prospect, officials said, an early assumption that no evacuee would be repatriated to Afghanistan has come under further scrutiny. Under international law — the Convention Against Torture — it is illegal to repatriate people who fled their country if it is more likely than not that they would be abused if returned.
Officials are said to be discussing whether that rule would bar returning evacuees who helped the United States in Afghanistan but have been deemed problematic because of ties to the Taliban.
About 76,000 Afghan evacuees have now arrived in the United States after clearing the screening process abroad, officials said. About 4,000 remain overseas, but most of them are said by officials to have been cleared, and they are simply waiting for recent vaccinations to take effect.
Officially, it is the Homeland Security Department that decides whether to allow particular evacuees into the United States because the legal authority to grant someone “humanitarian parole” resides with its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. But as a matter of informal practice, the officials said, recommendations have required interagency consensus.
The executive branch and its sprawling security bureaucracy wield sweeping power to decide whether to admit a foreigner into the country. Under American law, noncitizens abroad have little recourse if officials reject them.
Officials declined to detail any standard for how much certainty would be needed to decide that an ambiguous fact rose to the level of disqualifying derogatory information. They also declined to explain how officials weigh nonviolent law enforcement concerns, like fraud or theft convictions.
Those evacuees approved for entry into the United States go through an additional layer of Customs and Border Protection screening at domestic airports. Some are then steered into secondary screening, which on rare occasions has raised a new issue, officials said.
As a result, a “very small” number of those have voluntarily left the United States or been put into removal proceedings for deportation, officials said — including some joining the group in limbo in Kosovo.