49 Republicans voted for Biden’s $6 billion Afghan resettlement relief package

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

After President Joe Biden’s deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan on August 30, 2021, Congress passed an emergency government spending bill that included $6 billion to expand an Afghan refugee resettlement program.

The majority of Republicans voted against it: 35 in the U.S. Senate and 175 in the U.S. House.

However, 34 House Republicans and 15 Senate Republicans voted for it, enabling the bill to head to President Joe Biden, who signed it into law.

The $6 billion Afghan resettlement program included a special visa used by Afghan nationals who were released into the U.S. and arrested for a range of crimes.

One just pleaded not guilty after shooting two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., killing one. One pleaded guilty to planning an Election Day terrorist attack last year,; one was just charged with planning a suicide bomb attack in Fort Worth, Texas. Others have been prosecuted for a range of sexual assault crimes, The Center Square reported.

Fifteen Senate Republicans voted for it: Blunt (MO), Burr (NC), Capito (WV), Cassidy (LA), Collins (ME), Cornyn (TX), Graham (SC), Kennedy (LA), McConnell (KY), Murkowski (AK), Romney (UT), Rounds (SD), Shelby (AL), Tillis (NC) and Young (IN).

Thirty-four House Republicans voted for it: Amodei (NV), Cole (OK), Davis, R (IL), Diaz-Balart (FL), Fitzpatrick (PA), Garbarino (NY), Gimenez (FL), Gonzales, T (TX), Gonzalez (OH), Graves (LA), Herrera Beutler (WA), Higgins (LA), Katko (NY), Kim (CA), Kinzinger (IL), LaMalfa (CA), Letlow (LA), Malliotakis (NY), McHenry (NC), Meijer (MI), Moore (UT), Newhouse (WA), Obernolte (CA), Reed (NY), Rodgers (WA), Rogers (KY), Salazar (FL), Simpson (ID), Smith (NJ), Thompson (PA), Turner (OH), Upton (MI), Valadao (CA) and Young (AK).

Ahead of the Afghanistan pull out, U.S. Rep. Jason Crow, D-CO, introduced the ALLIES Act of 2021, HR 3985, to increase the number of special immigrant visas for Afghan nationals who worked for the U.S. government or the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on missions in Afghanistan.

It made an additional 8,000 visas available for Afghan nationals through a special visa program “based on a credible basis for concern about the possibility of an ongoing serious threat in Afghanistan due to their work with the U.S. government or a NATO mission, where currently the alien must have experienced such a threat.” However, it eliminated requirements for applicants to submit a credible sworn statement describing that threat and to prove they performed “sensitive and trusted duties.”

The bill passed with 407 Democrats and Republicans voting for it.

Only 16 Republicans voted against it: Biggs (AZ), Boebert (CO), Brooks (AL), DesJarlais (TN), Duncan (SC), Good (VA), Gosar (AZ), Greene (GA), Hern (OK), Hice (GA), Massie (KY), Moore (AL), Perry (PA), Posey (FL), Rosendale (MT) and Roy (TX).

It went nowhere in the Senate.

The Afghan men arrested last week were among more than 77,000 Afghans who were released into the country who weren’t properly vetted, according to a 2022 Inspector General report. The OIG found that the Biden administration “admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States;” the Afghans’ “name, date of birth, identification number, and travel document data, was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing.”

The administration also didn’t have a list of Afghan evacuees “who were unable to provide sufficient identification documents,” or have “a contingency plan to support similar emergency situations.” As a result, it “may have admitted or paroled individuals into the United States who pose a risk to national security and the safety of local communities,” the OIG warned.

The program was rife with problems, including releasing Afghan men who assaulted a female Fort Bliss, Texas, soldier; and others housed at Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy charged with engaging in sexual acts with a minor and assault. Many House and Senate Republicans demanded answers about the vetting process and about thousands of Afghans sent to live on military bases and in local communities nationwide, The Center Square reported.

“When tens of thousands of insufficiently vetted individuals are let into the interior, this is the inevitable result,” members of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee said last fall after the Election Day terrorist plot was foiled. Republican committee members repeatedly warned of terror threats stemming from Biden administration policies, The Center Square reported.

The last U.S. troops left Afghanistan Aug. 30, 2021. During the evacuation, a Taliban explosion killed 13 U.S. Marines, the majority of whom were from California. Thousands of Americans were also left stranded in Afghanistan with no plan to evacuate them.

The Biden administration also left billions of dollars of equipment, body armor, weapons, artillery and biometric devices to the Taliban with no plans to retrieve them or receive compensation for them. No U.S. military leaders have been held accountable for what has been described as one of the greatest military failures in U.S. history.