A group of 26 Republican senators penned a letter to President Joe Biden on Thursday requesting information on the number of American citizens and Afghan allies — particularly Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) recipients — remaining in Afghanistan after U.S. withdrawal.
The group, led by Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., wrote that while individual signatories may have “differing opinions about whether the United States should have maintained a military presence in Afghanistan,” all agree the “arbitrary and poorly-planned method by which [President Biden] withdrew from Afghanistan” put countrymen and allies in danger.
“Our immediate priority is the safety and well-being of American citizens, permanent residents, and allies who were left behind in Afghanistan,” the group wrote in part. “We are also concerned by reports that ineligible individuals, including Afghans with ties to terrorist organizations or serious, violent criminals, were evacuated alongside innocent refugee families.”
In total, the U.S. helped evacuate around 124,000 people from Afghanistan between Aug. 14 through Aug. 31, around 5,500 of which were American citizens.
The letter, which poses a series of questions about the administration’s frenzied departure from Afghanistan, asks the president to respond no later than 5:00 p.m. on Sept. 7.
The senators — which include Susan Collins, R-Maine, Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., Ted Cruz, R-Texas and Steve Daines, R-Mont. — asked the administration to provide information on how many Americans are currently still in Afghanistan, how or if the State Department is in contact with those citizens and how many have requested to come back to the United States.
Administration officials have given somewhat conflicting answers to those questions in recent days, and it remains unclear how many U.S. citizens who currently reside in Afghanistan may want to leave.
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department was in contact with somewhere between 100-200 American citizens who explicitly told the administration they want to return stateside.
On Tuesday, President Joe Biden claimed many of that remaining group do not want to depart due to familial ties, or because they have dual citizenship with Afghanistan and the United States.
The administration has pledged to facilitate their return to the United States if and when they so choose, although details of those evacuations remain unclear.
The senators on Thursday asked for similar information on SIV applicants and green card holders who remain in Afghanistan. The group is particularly concerned about the vetting procedures for every Afghan who will come to the country, regardless of their status. So far, the United States has pledged to accept around 50,000 Afghan evacuees.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price acknowledged Thursday that the SIV program was “not intended to be conducted in the course of evacuation,” adding that the approval process was made to be intentionally slow in order to ensure appropriate vetting.
But the U.S. government has “surged resources” to hubs in transit countries like Germany, where many Afghans will temporarily stay while they are vetted before being allowed to enter the United States, Price said. Over the summer, the U.S. upped its processing speed from 100 SIV applications per week in March, to nearly 1,000 per week in August.
“We can still take advantage of those significant processing gains to continue working through cases that remain open for Afghans who have worked for us over the years,” Price said, later adding: “In many cases, as I said before, the vetting will be quick, and the rigorous checks can be fulfilled, and in rather short order given that we surged resources to these transit countries to do just that.”
Price did not offer specific numbers on how many SIV applications have been approved since mid-August, nor how many applicants are waiting in a secondary location for processing.
The group of Senate Republicans are not alone in questioning the government’s evacuation from Afghanistan.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., penned a similar letter to administration officials on Wednesday. Kinzinger, himself a veteran of the Iraq war, said while he commends the administration for “saving thousands of lives,” he also believes “more could have been done to prevent the tragic loss of life on August 26, 2021 and to better prepare for the chaos that ensued this last week.”
Kinzinger requested secretary of state Antony Blinken and secretary of defense Lloyd Austin answer his questions, many of which pertain to SIV applicants or recipients still in Afghanistan, no later than Sept. 8.
