Blinken: Afghans ‘For Understandable Reasons’ Committing Visa Fraud to Get to U.S.

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Secretary of State Antony Blinken says some Afghans “for understandable reasons” are committing visa fraud to try to get to the United States.

In a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday, Blinken admitted that there have been cases where Afghans seeking to come to the U.S. were caught committing visa fraud in their Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) application process.

Those instances of fraud are “understandable,” according to Blinken:

Those who apply, those who actually get chief admission approval, the washout rate is about 40 percent because it turns out that many people who apply, don’t qualify under the criteria set by congress or they are unable to … prove that they have worked, faithfully and loyally, for the United States. There are some situations where people are committing fraud to get into the program, maybe for understandable reasons. [Emphasis added]

President Joe Biden’s massive resettlement operation, where he is seeking to ultimately bring 95,000 Afghans to the U.S., has been plagued with fraud and abuse since its start last month.

The overwhelming majority of Afghans arriving in the U.S. every day do not qualify for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs) or even refugee status. Instead, Afghans are arriving in the hopes of getting “humanitarian parole” and are allowed to land in the U.S. without having completed their immigration processing.

Last week, the Washington Post reported that internal Department of Homeland Security (DHS) records revealed that the Biden administration had mistakenly brought two convicted felon Afghans back to the U.S. as part of the operation after they had previously been deported.

In addition, one such Afghan brought to the U.S. and housed at Fort Pickett in Virginia has been arrested and charged with grand larceny after he allegedly jumped in a parked vehicle at the military base and drove around.

The same Post report stated that the Biden administration let a number of Afghans into the U.S. who were subsequently “flagged for suspected terrorist associations” and deemed “potential national security risks.”

National Public Radio (NPR) reported that Afghans are arriving in the U.S. sometimes with “no paperwork” to prove their identities or with “just scraps of paper.” Likewise, the Associated Press reported that Afghans have been caught lying about their identities or destroying their passports to conceal their true identities.

Already, the population of Afghans brought to the U.S. by Biden in less than a month is more than four times that of Jackson, Wyoming’s resident population.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.

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