Statement for the record by the George W. Bush Institute for the Senate Judiciary Committee’s joint hearing on the Afghan parolee program
Dear Chairman Cornyn, Chairman Hawley, Ranking Member Padilla, Ranking Member Durbin, and Members of the subcommittees:
On behalf of the George W. Bush Institute, thank you for convening this hearing, “Biden’s Afghan Parolee Program – A Trojan Horse with Flawed Vetting and Deadly Consequences.”
The November 2025 attack on National Guard members Sarah Beckstrom and Andrew Wolfe is nothing short of tragic. Terrorism, hate, and barbaric acts of violence have no place in any civilized society. The individual behind this reprehensible act of brutality should be held to account for his crimes to the fullest extent possible. His victims and their families deserve justice. An Afghan national has been arrested as the suspect.
But an entire community of immigrants should not be scapegoated for the actions of a few. Afghans seeking to enter or remain in the United States deserve to be judged on the individual merits of their immigration cases. This, of course, must include robust security vetting to ensure that none of them poses a threat to the American people.
For decades, Afghans worked with the United States and our allies to build a free and secure Afghanistan. A free Afghanistan isn’t only good for the Afghan people – it also protects Americans and furthers our national security interests. In turn, the U.S. government provided limited protection to these individuals through immigration policies such as the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) program, humanitarian parole, and U.S. refugee resettlement.
Humanitarian parole in particular has proven in the last four years to be politically divisive. Those conversations should not diminish the role that parole and other humanitarian immigration pathways play in U.S. foreign policy: they engender confidence that the United States will continue to protect and defend those who assist and advance U.S. objectives abroad, including in dangerous, even life-threatening situations.
Immigration reform is long overdue in the United States. Reevaluating immigration vetting procedures to ensure American safety and security is a necessary component of any potential immigration reform measure. But guaranteeing American security is not something that can be achieved solely through rescreening Afghans. A truly robust national security and counterterrorism strategy must include a coherent plan to address the egregious behavior of the Taliban and their supporters.
The U.S. Department of State lists Afghanistan as a Level 4: Do Not Travel country – it is not safe for anyone but the Taliban, who have prioritized personal profit over the basic needs of the Afghan population.
Terrorism, violence, and unlawful arrest are a regular threat to everyone other than the regime’s loyalists and enablers. Persecution, torture, and extrajudicial killings are regularly deployed against Afghan families as punishment for those who aided U.S. and international coalition objectives and/or have stood against the Taliban’s tyrannical pursuit of power and influence.
Those who would be returned from the U.S. would face dangerous conditions in Afghanistan and the strong risk of persecution at the hands of the Taliban. They would also be exposed to preventable and treatable illnesses (including polio, measles, and malnutrition, among others) that are ravaging the well-being of Afghan children. The majority of the population faces significant levels of poverty and food insecurity. Desperate parents have been forced to send their children to work or sell their organs or their children as child brides in a desperate attempt to ward off starvation.
Despite the disastrous U.S. withdrawal of all troops from the country in 2021, the Taliban have failed to honor almost every condition of the Doha Agreement, even declaring the joint declaration obsolete earlier this year.
Extremist propaganda and indoctrination are openly leveraged and lauded by Taliban officials. Senior leaders have regularly engaged with designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) – both in country and abroad (including Hamas and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps). Other extremist groups like Jamaat Ansarullah (JA) and the FTO designated Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are operating training camps within Afghanistan’s borders, with assistance from al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to repeated reports by the United Nation’s Security Council. Foreign malign actors – including Russia, Iran, and China – have become regular (though cautious) allies for the regime in its quest for legitimization, profit, and/or global influence.
Though the Taliban proclaimed a nationwide ban on the cultivation of narcotics, opium sales continue “unabated and had even become more ubiquitous,” according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. At the same time, methamphetamine production in Afghanistan is “surging,” per a 2023 analysis from the U.N. Office of Drugs and Organized Crime.
In their unyielding assault on education, knowledge, and critical thinking, the Taliban have eagerly replaced contemporary subjects with propaganda-focused curriculum in classrooms. Secular schools have been swiftly transformed into religious madrassas (including jihadi madrassas) to entrench the Taliban’s ideology and encourage brutality and a hatred of Western values among students. Children have also been increasingly recruited by armed groups across Afghanistan.
Each of these actions undermines American security. And the Taliban, in turn, oversee a country that is incredibly dangerous for anyone forced to return to if they are suspected of helping the United States. The longer the Taliban and their enablers can continue to profit off of the suffering of the Afghan people and the apathy of the global community, the more their threat to global stability will only grow.
Though American influence has changed since the 2021 withdrawal, there are a number of overdue actions that can be taken to push back against the Taliban’s tyranny and the growing risk posed by their control of Afghanistan.
To ensure American security while also fulfilling our promises to Afghan allies, we recommend the following actions:
Congress should reevaluate the vetting process for parolees to maintain public confidence in the security of humanitarian immigration programs.
Congress should continue to support secure relocation and resettlement of Afghan allies, including family members of U.S. service members, Afghan women who supported U.S. objectives but who do not meet the definition of an SIV, and others who are persecuted by the Taliban for supporting freedom and democracy.
The U.S. government should designate the Taliban as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and lead the push for stronger enforcement and expansion of the U.N.’s 1988 Committee’s sanctions list which is woefully out of date. Since 2022, when blanket travel ban exemptions expired, Taliban officials have been granted over five dozen exemptions for international travel. The list itself has not been updated since 2015 meaning a notable majority of Taliban officials are not subject to any form of targeted sanctions (whether U.S., U.N., European Union, or United Kingdom). Moreover, in the last year alone, U.N. members states reported at least eight trips by sanctioned Taliban members without accompanying exemption requests, according to the 1988 Committee’s 2025 Annual Report.
The United States should also investigate the Taliban’s capture of Afghanistan government ministries, subnational entities, and enterprises and designate those individuals/industries that have become conduits for illegal activity, terrorist financing, corruption, and human rights abuses for targeted sanctions and as primary money laundering concerns under Section 311 of the USA Patriot Act.
We urge Congress and the administration to work together to hold the Taliban accountable. American leadership in this effort remains imperative.
