WASHINGTON — In the wake of the historic military airlift from Kabul, President Biden has designated the Department of Homeland Security as the lead federal agency directing Operation Allies Welcome, overseeing the comprehensive vetting and resettlement of tens of thousands of vulnerable Afghans.
WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas confirmed Friday that DHS has established an around-the-clock Unified Coordination Group to direct the multi-agency screening, biometric processing, and domestic relocation of Afghan evacuees arriving in the United States.
Following the fall of Kabul, the U.S. military orchestrated an evacuation that transported more than 120,000 individuals out of Hamid Karzai International Airport. Evacuees slated for resettlement in the United States are being channeled through transit hubs in Europe and the Middle East—including Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and Ramstein Air Base in Germany—before boarding charter flights to Dulles International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport.
Multi-Tiered Intelligence and Biometric Screening
Addressing national security concerns raised by congressional leaders, DHS officials emphasized that every arriving Afghan national undergoes rigorous security vetting prior to boarding domestic flights. Customs and Border Protection officers and FBI National Joint Terrorism Task Force agents stationed at overseas transit hubs collect ten-print fingerprints, iris scans, and facial photographs.
These biometric identifiers are cross-referenced in real time against vast interagency intelligence repositories, including the Department of Defense Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS), the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) database, and the National Counterterrorism Center’s terrorist watchlists. Any individual whose biometric profile matches military battlefield intelligence files or watchlisted fingerprints is halted overseas for secondary counterintelligence debriefing.
Safe Haven Mobilization Across Military Installations
Upon arrival in the United States, evacuees are transported to the Dulles Expo Center for initial customs processing and emergency medical evaluations, including mandatory COVID-19 testing, measles vaccinations, and tuberculosis screening. From there, individuals are transferred to eight designated military installations, including Fort Lee in Virginia, Fort McCoy in Wisconsin, and Dona Ana Range Complex at Fort Bliss in Texas.
The interagency effort unites personnel from DHS, the Department of State, the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and hundreds of non-governmental resettlement agencies. Federal officials estimate the domestic processing footprint will operate through early 2022 as evacuees complete administrative immigration parole procedures and transition to permanent communities nationwide.