https://archive.is/D4PX7#selection-4599.0-4603.4
Were the Afghans vetted for security concerns before they arrived?
Yes.
Afghan Refugees in the U.S.: How They’re Vetted, Where They’re Going and How to Help
A majority have moved into communities around the country, where agencies are helping them find homes, apply for jobs and enroll their children in school
By
Michelle Hackman
Updated Jan. 21, 2022 7:26 am ET
People from Afghanistan lined up for a bus after arriving at Washington Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia. Photo: Jose Luis Magana/Associated Press
More than 76,000 Afghans have been brought to the U.S. since last summer, when they were airlifted from the Kabul airport during the chaotic final weeks of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
They were flown to U.S. military bases around the world, where their names and fingerprints were run through security systems, before being sent onto the U.S. They were temporarily settled on eight military installations in the U.S., where they waited until refugee resettlement agencies were ready to move them into permanent homes.
Here are answers to some key questions about where the Afghans go next, what assistance they receive and how people can help.
Where are most of the Afghans living now?
Of the roughly 76,000 Afghans brought to the U.S., more than 62,000 have already moved off U.S. military bases into communities around the country, where refugee resettlement officials are helping them find homes, apply for jobs and enroll their children in school.
Many, who have family members already living in the U.S., are heading to regions with existing Afghan communities, particularly in the San Francisco bay area, the northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, and Dallas. Others are being settled wherever the refugee resettlement agencies have room for them, from Florida to Oklahoma and North Dakota.
Another 14,000 are still living on five bases while they wait for the overloaded resettlement agencies to take their cases.
Separately, approximately 2,500 Afghans are still living at U.S. military bases abroad, while an untold number of others—most of whom were evacuated on private charter planes—are living temporarily in countries from Uganda to Albania, with no clear plan of where to head next.
The Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Services, seen in Baltimore, is contracted with the State Department to help settle refugees into American communities. Photo: Steve Ruark/Associated Press
Were the Afghans vetted for security concerns before they arrived?
Yes. Everyone evacuated from Afghanistan was first brought to a military base in Europe or the Middle East, where U.S. officials collected information, such as fingerprints and biographical details, that they ran through criminal and terrorism-related databases. Only people whose names were cleared through that process were then allowed to board flights to the U.S.
Even once they landed, immigration officers at airports needed to decide whether to formally allow the Afghans to be admitted into the country. While the vast majority of people were allowed to stay without issue, according to government officials, at least several hundred were taken into secondary screening and held for hours—and sometimes days—before being released. A smaller number have been denied entry into the country and sent back to military bases abroad, or else had their permission to be in the U.S. revoked and put into deportation proceedings.