A Department of Homeland Security watchdog report released Wednesday found that 269 of a 678-file sample of Afghan asylum applications contained process or documentation errors, including 45 records with unresolved matches to potential derogatory information. The findings, tied to Afghans resettled under Operation Allies Welcome, have reignited a years-long fight over how thoroughly the Biden administration vetted evacuees during the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The report, identified as OIG-26-26, was issued by the DHS Office of Inspector General on September 23. As KFOX reported, the audit identified 303 missing aliases, 23 missing security checks, and more than 150 other documentation issues across the sample. The OIG described two paperwork errors involving terrorism-related grounds of inadmissibility, and officials had identified and elevated both issues.
Why the Watchdog Started Digging
The inspector general's inquiry did not begin as a political exercise. The same DHS report indicates it was launched after U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees raised complaints that a September 2023 federal settlement, *Ahmed v. DHS*, which forced accelerated adjudication deadlines, would compromise screening quality. That settlement stemmed from a class-action lawsuit filed in April 2023 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California by seven Afghan evacuees represented by Kirkland & Ellis and the National Immigrant Justice Center, after thousands of Afghan allies faced delays far exceeding statutory processing timelines.
Those timelines trace back to Section 2502(c) of the Afghanistan Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2022, which mandated final asylum adjudications within 150 days of filing absent exceptional circumstances, according to court filings in the U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island. Notably, the inspector general's audit ultimately found no statistically significant increase in error rates following the settlement's implementation, undercutting the theory that court-ordered speed caused the paperwork problems.
Advocates Push Back on the 40% Figure
The advocacy group #AfghanEvac moved quickly to reframe the finding. In a statement, the organization emphasized that the 40% metric measures administrative and paperwork compliance rather than security failures, and it noted that every applicant underwent biometric fingerprint checks against FBI, DHS, and Department of Defense databases that function independently of name spelling variants, according to #AfghanEvac.
USCIS Director Joseph Edlow concurred with all five of the inspector general's recommendations, while stressing that the administrative documentation omissions occurred alongside broader, established multi-agency security safeguards already operating to mitigate risks, per The Daily Wire. As of September 2026, USCIS had completed final asylum adjudications for 13,682 principal Afghan applicants who arrived under Operation Allies Welcome, out of more than 77,000 total paroled evacuees resettled nationwide, according to the inspector general's report.
A Pattern Watchdogs Have Flagged Before
This is not the first time DHS's own inspector general has raised alarms about the program. A 2022 report, OIG-22-64, found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection had paroled Afghan evacuees into the country without full vetting during the initial August 2021 evacuation, citing missing identification documents and a lack of automated screening systems at transit safe havens, per the DHS Office of Inspector General.
Charles Marino, a former DHS senior adviser, told KFOX he believes the 40% error figure is likely an undercount, arguing that a larger sample would produce a much higher error rate. Marino also criticized the Biden administration's broader approach to immigration and legal entry pathways, saying it exploited supposed legal pathways into the country, and he argued the Trump administration was right to cancel programs from jurisdictions where thorough vetting could not be assured.
The Case That Keeps Getting Cited
Security concerns surrounding post-withdrawal Afghan vetting intensified in October 2024, when federal agents arrested Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, an Afghan national admitted under Operation Allies Welcome in September 2021, for plotting an ISIS-inspired mass shooting targeting U.S. Election Day, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Tawhedi pleaded guilty in Oklahoma federal court in June 2025 to two terrorism offenses, resulting in his permanent removal from the country.
The Tawhedi case has since become a recurring reference point in state-level homeland security debates, including Oklahoma's probe into Muslim advocacy groups that Hoodline covered last month. DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said the Biden administration dangerously mismanaged Operation Allies Welcome and put the United States at risk, per KFOX's report. Former DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has defended the vetting process, testifying before Senate lawmakers on Capitol Hill in November 2021 that the policy was to vet 100% of individuals in transit countries before they boarded flights to the United States.
Operation Allies Welcome launched in August 2021 following the U.S. military's withdrawal from Afghanistan, which ended 20 years of war. The program ultimately brought more than 70,000 Afghans to the United States.
