Exclusive | More than 5,000 Afghan migrants flagged on ‘national security’ grounds since 2021, document reveals

More than 5,000 Afghans brought to the US after American forces withdrew from the country got flagged for “national security” issues, Department of Homeland Security data obtained by The Post reveals.

In all, the feds uncovered “potential derogatory information” on a total of 6,868 people who came from Afghanistan as part of President Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome in 2021.

Of that number, 5,005 came up with a national security concern, while 956 people had “public safety” concerns and 876 were flagged for fraud, according to the data.

DHS provided the information to Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, after he posed a series of questions to the Homeland Security Department in May 2024.

While various US agencies were able to resolve many of the red flags, as of September there were still 885 people with potentially negative national security information – posing a possible threat.

Following Wednesday’s shocking ambush of two National Guards members in Washington DC, President Trump ordered a review of security and vetting protocols for migrants from 19 “high-risk” countries, along with all asylum cases approved by the prior administration.

The startling data comes to light just days after suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal allegedly killed National Guardswoman Sarah Beckstrom, 20, and left Guardsman Andrew Wolfe, 24, hospitalized in critical condition.

For years, Grassley has been pressing the FBI and DHS about “glaring red flags” in the program that brought more than 70,000 Afghans to the US following the botched 2021 troop withdrawal.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem provided the information in a Sept. 9 letter to the lawmaker, three days after the agency’s Inspector General reported it found DHS “encountered obstacles to screen, vet and inspect all evacuees.”

“I spent years calling attention to the weak vetting standards in Operation Allies Welcome, despite considerable pushback from the Biden administration and many of my colleagues in Congress,” Grassley told The Post.

“Sadly, this past week’s tragedy in Washington only validates my concerns further. I appreciate the Trump administration’s efforts to respond to my oversight and restore order in the wake of the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaos that followed,” he said.

Another Department of Homeland Security IG report found the agency had a “fragmented process” for dealing with potential security risks in the program.

The Justice Department’s IG, meanwhile, reported in June that 55 individuals who were on a terror watch list but still made it to a US port as of May 2023. Some of them had been added to the list while the evacuation was taking place.

“According to the FBI, the need to immediately evacuate Afghans overtook the normal processes required to determine whether individuals attempting to enter the United States pose a threat to national security, which increased the risk that bad actors could try to exploit the expedited evacuation,” the IG found.

Even while compiling its report, the IGs office noted the feds charged two Afghan nationals, Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi and Abdullah Haji Zada, with planning an ISIS-inspired plot to try to disrupt the 2024 elections in Oklahoma City.

Tawhedi — who came into the US in 2021 on a Special Immigrant Visa and obtained two AK-47 assault rifles and 500 rounds of ammo in 2024 — pleaded guilty in June to providing material support for ISIS and faces up to 35 years in prison. Zada, 19, got a 15-year sentence. 

Tawhedi reportedly worked for the CIA as a security guard in his home country.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe revealed hours after the Nov. 26 Guard shooting that Lakanwal had worked alongside the CIA in Afghanistan. Ratcliffe said he “should never have been allowed to come here.”

“It sounds like they may have vouched for this guy,” former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker told The Post, saying that cooperators “play both ends all the time.”

As for US vetting efforts going forward, “You have to have an analyst or an agent look at every doggone one of them and do it critically and set some objective criteria for disqualification,” he added.