{"id":407435,"date":"2026-01-14T21:54:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407435\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T21:54:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T21:54:07","slug":"grassley-outlines-yearslong-oversight-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/407435\/","title":{"rendered":"Grassley Outlines Yearslong Oversight of…"},"content":{"rendered":"

Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Biden\u2019s Afghan Parolee Program \u2013 A Trojan Horse with Flawed Vetting and Deadly Consequences<\/a>
Wednesday, January 14, 2026<\/p>\n

\n

VIDEO<\/a><\/p>\n

I want to open by thanking Senators Cornyn and Hawley for their leadership in coordinating this joint subcommittee hearing.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s hearing follows an Afghan national\u2019s vile attack on two National Guardsmen, which killed Sarah Beckstrom and left Andrew Wolfe critically wounded.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re forever grateful for these guardsmen\u2019s bravery and service to our country.<\/p>\n

In 2024, law enforcement arrested<\/a> an Afghan national \u2013 affiliated with ISIS \u2013 who planned to conduct a terror attack on Election Day.<\/p>\n

And, just days after Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe were attacked, law enforcement arrested another Afghan national in Texas who posted online threats to bomb and kill Americans.<\/p>\n

The last administration failed to enforce our immigration laws and to appropriately vet Afghans<\/a> that they brought to the United States.<\/p>\n

President Biden and Vice President Harris \u2013 after their administration\u2019s botched withdrawal<\/a> from Afghanistan \u2013 stood up a massive immigration parole program: Operation Allies Welcome.<\/p>\n

A staggering 76,000-plus Afghan parolees entered the United States through the program.<\/p>\n

Immigration parole\u2019s intent is careful consideration of an individual on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n

President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, however, failed to enforce our immigration laws and granted parole en masse to a large swath of folks at the border and elsewhere, including Afghan evacuees \u2013 many of whom didn\u2019t even serve alongside U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The Biden-Harris administration invited other Afghans into the United States as a part of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program.<\/p>\n

By 2022, some in Congress wanted to create a pathway for permanency for tens-of-thousands of Afghans \u2013 both those issued an SIV, as well as those merely paroled into the U.S.<\/p>\n

The scope of these efforts continues to go far beyond those who dutifully served alongside our troops and aided in their mission.<\/p>\n

Since 2021<\/a>, I\u2019ve warned the Biden administration, my congressional colleagues and the American public about the failure to vet Afghan evacuees.<\/p>\n

For years, the Biden administration hid known vetting vulnerabilities<\/a> from the [American] people.<\/p>\n

Multiple Inspectors General released reports<\/a> detailing the Biden-Harris administration\u2019s stark vetting failures.<\/p>\n

Initially, the Biden administration failed to vet evacuees<\/a> against all available Defense Department tactical data prior to being paroled.<\/p>\n

But, even if all databases were searched, there\u2019d arguably never be full vetting.<\/p>\n

The Afghan Government, national and local, isn\u2019t known to be the most organized and diligent with records and intelligence work product.<\/p>\n

If our government databases don\u2019t possess all known security risks of individuals, running names against the databases won\u2019t do much good.<\/p>\n

Last year, on September 9th, DHS Secretary Noem told my office that as of August 12, 2025, thousands of Operation Allies Welcome parolees were potential national security risks.<\/p>\n

Clearly, problems persist in our own backyard.<\/p>\n

More recently, on January 7, 2026, I wrote <\/a>to the Department of Justice, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, CIA and Department of Defense.<\/p>\n

In that letter, I made public new records.<\/p>\n

Those records show that the Biden State Department had recommended a Special Immigrant Visa for the Afghan national charged with shooting the two national guardsmen.<\/p>\n

According to the Biden State Department, the terrorist \u201cposes no threat to national security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year, I also brought in USCIS and FBI personnel for a bipartisan briefing as part of my oversight.<\/p>\n

The briefings further discussed the inherent failures in the vetting systems of the previous administration.<\/p>\n

The American people deserve to know the information that the M<\/p>\n

embers heard during these briefings. And I\u2019ve asked the FBI to declassify certain information.<\/p>\n

Still today, some proposals ask Congress to simply \u201crubber-stamp\u201d these abuses of parole.<\/p>\n

Instead of using more proper pathways, like the Refugee Admissions Program, the Biden-Harris administration took drastic shortcuts, and America is less safe as a result.<\/p>\n

Carving out exceptions and pushing poorly vetted parolees to the front of the line is not the answer \u2013 addressing the Executive Branch\u2019s prior abuses of parole is.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why I\u2019ve reintroduced my Immigration Parole Reform Act<\/a> this Congress.<\/p>\n

Similarly, recent proposals to expand the SIV program do little to address the thousands already here who weren\u2019t adequately vetted.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, President Trump\u2019s swift work to protect the American people and vet those coming here or intending to remain is a welcome course correction.<\/p>\n

I look forward to this hearing on what happened, what went wrong and how this administration can address this issue moving ahead.<\/p>\n

Again, I thank my two subcommittee chairmen for their work on this hearing.<\/p>\n

-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of IowaChairman, Senate Judiciary CommitteeBiden\u2019s Afghan Parolee Program \u2013 A Trojan Horse with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-407435","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-united-states-of-america","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","14":"tag-us","15":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407435"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407435\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}