Ron Johnson (File Photo)
WASHINGTON, DC (WTAQ) — Wisconsin US Senator Ron Johnson is reiterating his concerns over Afghan refugees coming to the United States.
Johnson, who grilled Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a hearing earlier this week over the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, raised concerns over the vetting process being used for refugees coming in.
“They’re singing their own praises about how we efficiently evacuated 124,000 people,” said Johnson. “But they’re not the special immigrant visa holders, that’s probably just a few hundred, I believe the number they gave was 705. There were a couple thousand, a few thousand American citizens, that leaves 115,000 to 120,000 other Afghans, and the question is: who are they?”
Democrats and state department officials have praised the 14-step vetting process for Afghan refugees, but Johnson argues it isn’t as thorough as they say. He criticized the biometric screening process used to cross reference a refugee’s biometric data with terrorist watch lists and the no-fly list.
“The other time that raises an issue is if there is information about them on those watchlists,” said Johnson. “How many al-Qaeda terrorists actually have their biometric data in our databases? I’d argue not many.”
He’d like to see more vetting done.
“What are we really doing to connect them to, for example, the service members that many of them did work with?” Johnson told WTAQ. “Yeah, I think we owe those individuals, I just don’t have confidence in this administration.”
Over 12,000 refugees are staying at Wisconsin’s Fort McCoy.
