Hawley Says Senate 'Trojan Horse' Hearing Will Expose 50+ Afghan Parolees With Alleged Terror Ties

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) says a Senate oversight hearing will reveal that the Biden administration’s Afghan parole program allowed dozens of people with alleged terrorist links to enter the United States, a breakdown he argues put American lives at risk.

Hawley made the remarks ahead of a Senate hearing titled: "Biden’s Afghan parolee program — a Trojan Horse with flawed vetting and deadly consequences." He told reporters he expects testimony to show that more than 50 individuals who matched entries on terrorism-related databases were nonetheless admitted under the parole program.

U.S. Air Force loadmasters and pilots assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron load passengers aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17 Globemaster III in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Aug. 24, 2021.

“I think we’re going to see tomorrow that pro-Hamas groups, pro-terrorist groups actually got money from the Biden administration to shepherd these parolees. It is a scandal. It’s outrageous,” Hawley said. “We’ve got to figure out how many people are here with national security concerns… I think we’re going to hear testimony tomorrow that there are over 50 folks known in the country with terrorist ties who had hits on terrorist databases and were allowed to come into the country.”

The hearing follows a November attack in Washington, D.C., in which an Afghan national shot two National Guard members, killing one and critically wounding the other. The FBI has classified that incident as an act of terrorism; Republican lawmakers say the shooting raised urgent questions about whether evacuees and parolees were sufficiently screened.

Official Department of Homeland Security reporting states the United States processed roughly 76,000 evacuees through Operation Allies Welcome in 2021, the administration’s program to resettle vulnerable Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal. Conservative analysts, including the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS), place the total number of Afghan nationals admitted around the end of the evacuation period much higher — estimating more than 200,000 people.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., speaks during the Senate Judiciary and Homeland Security and Government Affairs committees in the Dirksen Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, July 30, 2024.

Nayla Rush, a senior researcher at CIS, wrote in a December report that many entrants were admitted on "parole" — a temporary permission to enter and remain in the U.S. — rather than on immigrant visas or formal refugee status. Rush argued the administration did not sufficiently distinguish between individuals who had served U.S. interests in Afghanistan and those who had not.

“They were not U.S. ‘allies,’ nor were they ‘persecuted’ individuals in need of refugee resettlement. Lacking immigrant visas, they were granted ‘parole,’” Rush wrote.

Sen. Hawley acknowledged that some admitted Afghans had assisted U.S. efforts in Afghanistan but emphasized that the government’s duty to protect citizens requires robust vetting. “We have an obligation to protect the country… ‘Who are you? Do you have terrorist ties?’ This is why we do interviews. And none of that happened with tens of thousands [of Afghans],” he said.

Witnesses expected to testify at the hearing include Nayla Rush (CIS) and officials from oversight offices at the Department of Homeland Security, including Craig Adelman, who serves as a deputy inspector general involved with DHS audits, and Arne Baker, a deputy inspector general responsible for evaluations at the Department of Defense. The committee is scheduled to begin the hearing at 2:00 p.m. EST.

Note: The claims described are those made by Sen. Hawley and his allies and will be evaluated through testimony and oversight during the hearing. The hearing offers a formal forum for lawmakers and government auditors to present evidence and examine agency processes related to the Afghan parole program.