Biden DHS exempts thousands of immigrants from terrorism-related entry restrictions in fiscal year 2024.
EXCLUSIVE: Biden administration granted nearly 7,000 waivers, mostly to refugees, for foreign nationals who might otherwise be ineligible to enter the U.S. because of terrorism-related entry restrictions — significantly higher than in recent years.
Fox News Digital reviewed the agency’s draft FY 2024 report to Congress on the implementation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary’s authority to exclude foreign nationals for terrorism-related inadmissibility (TRIG) reasons. Foreign nationals seeking entry to the US may be considered inadmissible for entry and immigration benefits if they have been associated with, supported, or worked with terrorist organizations.
However, the Secretary of DHS may exempt certain foreign nationals from this inadmissibility, including if they have provided involuntary support, if they have provided medical care, and if they meet other standards for exemption.
A reporter raises his hand to ask a question to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas during a press briefing Monday, July 15, 2024, at the White House in Washington, DC (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
According to the draft report, there were 6,848 TRIG exemptions in FY 2024. The majority (6,653) were refugees, but the report does not break down the number by country. The Biden administration has significantly increased the refugee cap to 125,000, significantly higher than the 18,000 set in the final year of the Trump administration.
The number of 6,848 is significantly higher than the 2,085 waivers issued FY 2023which was more than in previous years. According to DHS reports, 603 waivers were distributed in FY 2022, 191 in FY 2021, and 361 in FY 2020.
In 2022, DHS announced an exemption for Afghan evacuees who worked as government employees or individuals who provided “insignificant or certain limited material support” to a designated terrorist group. DHS said it could apply to many occupations, including teachers, doctors and engineers, and those who used their position to ease Taliban repression. The waiver came amid efforts to evacuate Afghanistan’s nationals mass after the Taliban took control of the country in 2021.
The FY24 report stated that 29 exemptions were provided for Afghan allies supporting US interests in Afghanistan, and 374 were for government employees. Meanwhile, 3,134 were for those who provided certain limited support or insignificant material support to a Tier I or Tier II terrorist organization, according to the 2022 waiver announced by DHS. Most of the remaining exemptions (2,946) were granted under the 2007 mandate for involuntary support.
Of those who received exemptions and were not refugees, 155 were asylum seekers, 22 were green card holders and four were temporary protected status applicants,
The increase in TRIG exemptions comes ahead of what is expected to be a significant Trump administration increase reduce the admission of refugeeswhile increasing deportations of illegal immigrants and increasing security at the southern border.
Republicans and former Trump administration officials have often criticized the Biden administration for expanding immigration routes and letting migrants inland, in part because of concerns about the potential risk of terrorism.
“Joe Biden and his administration have viciously targeted parents at school board meetings, pro-life Americans, Catholics and Trump supporters—calling some ‘domestic terrorists’—instead of catching real terrorists and keeping them out of the country.” Michael Bars, former Trump DHS deputy assistant secretary and senior White House communications adviser, told Fox News Digital. “They were actually helping potential threats enter, waiving national security safeguards to admit individuals who were providing varying degrees of material support to Islamic terrorist organizations in extraordinary numbers.
Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)
“Islamic terrorism is not ‘homegrown’ — it was imported into the U.S. through our broken immigration system and open border. The Biden administration has not only failed in its duty to address this growing threat, it has accelerated it,” he said.
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DHS did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment, but the report emphasized that all applicants are subject to a thorough and “rigorous” security clearance process.
“All applicants considered for exemption were subject to thorough and rigorous security screening,” the report said. “[U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services] procedures require that the biographical and biometric data of all applicants be checked against a wide range of law enforcement and intelligence databases containing information on individuals known to pose a security threat, including terrorist watch list. In addition to a rigorous background check, the Secretary’s discretion is exercised only on a case-by-case basis after a careful review of all factors and after all security checks have been passed.”
“These waivers will allow qualified individuals who do not pose a risk to national or public security to obtain asylum, refugee status, or other legal immigration status, demonstrating the continued commitment of the United States to our Afghan allies and their family members,” said DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. . he said in 2022.
The Biden administration has also previously noted the previous use of TRIG waivers, including in 2019, to apply to those involved in the Lebanese civil war between 1975 and 1990. The USCIS website also says that the definition of terrorist-related activities is “relatively broad and may refer to individuals and activities not normally considered to be related to terrorism.”
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The use of TRIG exemptions has proven controversial among Republicans. In August 2022, a coalition of senators sounded the alarm about the 2022 exemptions, saying that the exemption of those providing insignificant or limited support could have been allowed written in a way that was not limited to Afghans.
“Indeed, it is not limited to specific conflicts, terrorist organizations, geographic regions or time periods at all,” they said.
