WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) today delivered the following opening remarks during a joint Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing entitled, “Biden’s Afghan Parolee Program – A Trojan Horse with Flawed Vetting and Deadly Consequences,” which he co-chaired as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Border Security and Immigration. Excerpts are below, and video can be found here.

“Many of the 70,000 Afghan nationals that were paroled in to the United States were unvetted and allowed to travel throughout the United States, even when we had derogatory information or concerns about them.”

“Responsibility for the failures with the withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan lies squarely at the feet of the Biden administration.”

“Neither the Biden State Department, the Department of Defense, nor the Department of Homeland Security had a proper plan in place.”

“The speed and lack of coordination of the withdrawal was far from the only problem. The process by which massive numbers of these foreign nationals was vetted and brought to the United States was also filled with flaws.”

“The young man who committed this heinous attack against our National Guard service members on November the 26th was not the recipient of a Congressionally passed Special Immigrant Visa Program; rather, he entered the country through Operation Allies Welcome parole program.”

“This parole program was created as an end run-around Congress, and the Biden administration, in the process, let in tens of thousands of unvetted Afghans into the country. These individuals had no honorable military service or sacrifice that warranted special treatment. In fact, most of them had no immigration status at all.”

“At least 1,300 Afghan nationals were allowed to travel and enter the United States before we even collected their biometrics – fingerprints, photograph – in order to run background checks through the various government databases.”

“The Biden administration allowed more than 70,000 Afghan nationals into the United States using this claimed parole authority.”

“Thankfully, now that President Trump is back in office, he’s prioritized vetting of all aliens outside the country and currently inside the country, including parolees.”

“Americans deserve to live free from fear that individuals with ties to terrorist organizations are not roaming about our country. We cannot bring back U.S. Army Specialist Sarah Beckstrom, but we can and will do everything in our power to prevent such a horrible incident from occurring again. That accountability starts today with this hearing.”