By Kari Jacobson
FAIR
Earlier this month, a federal jury convicted U.S. Navy Reserve Commander Jeromy Pittmann on multiple criminal charges for his involvement in a bribery scheme in which he accepted money to forge over 20 Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications submitted by Afghan nationals. This case is the most recent in a long line of controversies surrounding efforts to bring Afghan nationals into the country using these special visas.
According to the Department of Justice (DOJ), Pittman received thousands of dollars in bribes from Afghan visa applicants after he drafted, submitted, and falsely verified over 20 letters of recommendation as part of the application process. In the letters, Pittman alleged that he “personally knew and had supervised the Afghan national visa applicants while they worked as translators in support of the U.S. military and NATO; that the applicants’ lives were in jeopardy because the Taliban considered them to be traitors; and that, based on his personal knowledge of the applicants, he believed they did not pose any threat to the national security of the United States.” However, Pittman did not know any of the applicants.
The roots of the SIV program date back more than a decade, and controversy has followed its growth. In 2009, Congress passed the Afghan Allies Protection Act, which provided 1,500 Special Immigrant Visas per year in Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 for Afghan nationals who had served as translators or interpreters, or who were employed by or on behalf of the United States, and whose safety was threatened as a result. Following FY2013, Congress has repeatedly allocated additional visas to the program, primarily through “must-pass” legislation such as annual spending or defense bills. Then, even though the U.S. presence in Afghanistan had ceased, Congress used the FY2023 appropriations bill to once again extend the SIV program through December 31, 2024. Congress also authorized 4,000 additional SIVs for Afghan nationals — leading to a total of 38,500 visas allocated since 2014.
Amidst protracted legislative wrangling over the SIV program, the Biden Administration illegally paroled tens of thousands of Afghans, some who were seeking SIVs and others who were not, through Operation Allies Welcome (OAW) following the collapse of Afghanistan’s government in 2021. As the Taliban assumed control of the region, OAW oversaw the resettlement of around 77,000 Afghan evacuees brought into the U.S. and released on parole for a two-year, renewable period, despite the fact that the parole statute prohibits the government from paroling in refugees. While Americans were led to believe that the evacuation was intended to save Americans and Afghan military allies, many of those who were evacuated did not help the United States, and many had poor or incomplete vetting.
Perhaps most concerning are the glaring national security shortfalls. In August 2022, just a year after the disastrous withdrawal, whistleblower allegations emerged alleging that 324 Afghan evacuees on a Department of Defense (DOD) watchlist for national security threats were allowed into the country after the agency was directed to cut corners in vetting and fingerprint tests. Then, in September 2022, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report revealing that DHS encountered numerous obstacles in the screening and vetting of Afghan evacuees. In particular, the report found that critical biometric information used to screen evacuees was inaccurate, incomplete, or missing, and that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) admitted or paroled evacuees who were not fully vetted into the United States. Further adding to the security risk of bringing Afghan nationals into the country, in 2022, the State Department and DHS took the extraordinary step of waiving certain terrorism-related inadmissibility grounds under the Immigration and Nationality Act (specifically, section 212(a)(3)(B)) for Afghan nationals, which may apply to SIV applicants.
Despite the significant vetting concerns and other issues stemming from Operation Allies Welcome and the SIV program, many in Congress continue to advocate legislation to bring more Afghan nationals into the United States. In addition to a push for more SIVs, some Members of Congress seek passage of the Afghan Adjustment Act (AAA), which would provide green cards for Afghan parolees who fled the country in 2021, but fails to close loopholes or address the lax vetting processes in place. The leading proponent of that bill, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), has argued that an expansion of pathways to citizenship for Afghan evacuees would provide them with “legal certainty they deserve as they rebuild their lives” and is “the right and necessary thing to do.” Meanwhile, FAIR and many other Members of Congress have consistently criticized the bill for failing to address the core issues at hand. As Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) noted, “there is significant concern with admitting large numbers of immigrants from a war-torn country like Afghanistan, which has a lack of comprehensive records from which to screen most people.”
Even with the SIV program’s history of vetting failures, the conviction of Commander Pittman for helping Afghan nationals forge applications are deeply disturbing. Pittman was convicted on July 12, 2024, of multiple crimes, including conspiracy to commit bribery and false writing, bribery, false writing, and conspiracy to commit concealment money laundering. He is scheduled to be sentenced on October 21, 2024, and faces up to 45 years in prison. The status of the Afghans who bribed Commander Pittman is unknown at this time.
Despite glaring national security concerns, the Biden Administration’s open-borders policies have been intentionally designed to circumvent our immigration laws and prioritize the mass influx of aliens—regardless of whether they legally eligible for admission. The numerous failures of the SIV program and OAW highlight the need for serious reforms. At a minimum, any bill addressing the SIV program must provide for strict screening and background check reforms, and any bill related to Afghan nationals paroled into the country must address the unlawful use of parole underpinning it.
