Grassley Outlines Yearslong Oversight of Afghan Parolee Program at Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing

Statement by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Chairman, Senate Judiciary Committee
Biden's Afghan Parolee Program - A Trojan Horse with Flawed Vetting and Deadly Consequences
Wednesday, January 14, 2026

VIDEO

I want to open by thanking Senators Cornyn and Hawley for their leadership in coordinating this joint subcommittee hearing.

Today's hearing follows an Afghan national's vile attack on two National Guardsmen, which killed Sarah Beckstrom and left Andrew Wolfe critically wounded.

We're forever grateful for these guardsmen's bravery and service to our country.

In 2024, law enforcement arrested an Afghan national - affiliated with ISIS - who planned to conduct a terror attack on Election Day.

And, just days after Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe were attacked, law enforcement arrested another Afghan national in Texas who posted online threats to bomb and kill Americans.

The last administration failed to enforce our immigration laws and to appropriately vet Afghans that they brought to the United States.

President Biden and Vice President Harris - after their administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan - stood up a massive immigration parole program: Operation Allies Welcome.

A staggering 76,000-plus Afghan parolees entered the United States through the program.

Immigration parole's intent is careful consideration of an individual on a case-by-case basis.

President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas, however, failed to enforce our immigration laws and granted parole en masse to a large swath of folks at the border and elsewhere, including Afghan evacuees - many of whom didn't even serve alongside U.S. Forces in Afghanistan.

The Biden-Harris administration invited other Afghans into the United States as a part of the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program.

By 2022, some in Congress wanted to create a pathway for permanency for tens-of-thousands of Afghans - both those issued an SIV, as well as those merely paroled into the U.S.

The scope of these efforts continues to go far beyond those who dutifully served alongside our troops and aided in their mission.

Since 2021, I've warned the Biden administration, my congressional colleagues and the American public about the failure to vet Afghan evacuees.

For years, the Biden administration hid known vetting vulnerabilities from the [American] people.

Multiple Inspectors General released reports detailing the Biden-Harris administration's stark vetting failures.

Initially, the Biden administration failed to vet evacuees against all available Defense Department tactical data prior to being paroled.

But, even if all databases were searched, there'd arguably never be full vetting.

The Afghan Government, national and local, isn't known to be the most organized and diligent with records and intelligence work product.

If our government databases don't possess all known security risks of individuals, running names against the databases won't do much good.

Last year, on September 9th, DHS Secretary Noem told my office that as of August 12, 2025, thousands of Operation Allies Welcome parolees were potential national security risks.

Clearly, problems persist in our own backyard.

More recently, on January 7, 2026, I wrote to the Department of Justice, FBI, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, CIA and Department of Defense.

In that letter, I made public new records.

Those records show that the Biden State Department had recommended a Special Immigrant Visa for the Afghan national charged with shooting the two national guardsmen.

According to the Biden State Department, the terrorist "poses no threat to national security."

Last year, I also brought in USCIS and FBI personnel for a bipartisan briefing as part of my oversight.

The briefings further discussed the inherent failures in the vetting systems of the previous administration.

The American people deserve to know the information that the M

embers heard during these briefings. And I've asked the FBI to declassify certain information.

Still today, some proposals ask Congress to simply "rubber-stamp" these abuses of parole.

Instead of using more proper pathways, like the Refugee Admissions Program, the Biden-Harris administration took drastic shortcuts, and America is less safe as a result.

Carving out exceptions and pushing poorly vetted parolees to the front of the line is not the answer - addressing the Executive Branch's prior abuses of parole is.

That's why I've reintroduced my Immigration Parole Reform Act this Congress.

Similarly, recent proposals to expand the SIV program do little to address the thousands already here who weren't adequately vetted.

Thankfully, President Trump's swift work to protect the American people and vet those coming here or intending to remain is a welcome course correction.

I look forward to this hearing on what happened, what went wrong and how this administration can address this issue moving ahead.

Again, I thank my two subcommittee chairmen for their work on this hearing.

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