An Afghan national brought into the country under former President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome program was arrested Monday after authorities say he posted a TikTok video that appeared to show him assembling an explosive device and naming Fort Worth as the intended target. The Department of Homeland Security confirmed the case this week, with Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin announcing the arrest of Mohammad Dawood Alokozay on terroristic-threat charges. The Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force carried out the operation, booking Alokozay into Tarrant County Jail on November 25, according to WFAA in Dallas.
Alokozay’s arrival in the United States was part of the Biden administration’s mass-parole effort for Afghan nationals following the chaotic 2021 withdrawal — a program increasingly under scrutiny after a string of violent incidents involving its recipients. His arrest came just one day before another Afghan national allegedly gunned down two West Virginia National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., killing 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounding 24-year-old Andrew Wolfe. Both attacks, separated by barely 24 hours, have reignited warnings from conservatives about national-security lapses under Biden’s refugee policies.
By Thursday, President Trump responded with a sweeping announcement of his own. In a Thanksgiving night video, Trump condemned the Beckstrom-Wolfe attack as “an act of evil, and an act of hatred, and an act of terror,” adding that it was “a crime against humanity” and “an act against our entire nation.” He said the pair of incidents underscored “the single-greatest national security threat facing our nation” and vowed a full review of every Afghan brought in under Biden’s program.
Mollie
@MZHemingway
“standard security screening and vetting process that U.S. Gov’t conducts for refugee/visa applicants, which includes validating ID documents and an in-person interview by a trained official, is not being followed for the Afghan evacuees” — Oct. 2021 GOP HSGAC oversight report
Afghans without any ID or records were approved for travel to US as long as fingerprints or other biometrics were not already in a U.S. Gov’t database and connected to derogatory information …
If an evacuee did have ID (e.g., an Afghan ID card or passport), federal officials said the screening process did not include the validation of identification documents beyond a visual inspection.
“few Afghans know their birthday, which has resulted in a number of evacuees’ date of birth logged as January 1. This new record of the evacuee can serve as the basis for receiving a Real ID in the United States.”
official who worked overseas said security vetting occurred when evacuees arrived in US. However, a federal official at the Fort Lee evacuee housing site said any vetting interviews occurred overseas before evacuees boarded planes for the United States. — GOP HSGAC report
U.S. officials processing Afghans with ID cards stated they lacked any training to identify fraudulent Afghan documents. ” unclear if federal officials could spot an evacuee using a fraudulent ID card.
vetting interviews were only conducted with evacuees
whose biometrics or phone records were linked to derogatory information — officials acknowledged that this is not the standard immigration process from countries that require enhanced scrutiny prior to coming to US
“Furthermore, when the federal official was asked if the vetting was sufficient to be confident in America’s security since evacuees can and have left the bases in the United States at will, the federal official said, ‘no.'”
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