Afghan refugees are being moved quickly into the United States and that brings concerns over whether they're being properly vetted, former Border Patrol Commissioner Mark Morgan told Newsmax Saturday.
"Having been in the government for a long time, I've been in operations where the goal was to do something fast, and I guarantee when you do that, something falls through the cracks," Morgan, now a Newsmax contributor, said on "The Count."
"I don't think we should be doing that in this situation where we're actually talking people from a complete failed terrorist state, that is going to be an operating base for terrorists."
The Biden administration has said some 50,000 refugees from Afghanistan will be resettled in the United States. Morgan said he agrees with resettling people who helped the United States in the war effort, but then some are considered general refugees, and that is a concern because they are being shipped out so quickly.
"What I've heard from this administration, including the military personnel...I keep hearing from them again and get is their mission is to put people on planes as fast as they can," said Morgan.
"I have not heard one thing that gives me confidence that they're doing the vetting process of it. Right now, what they're doing is saying, 'Hey we're just gonna dump them in America, and then we'll figure out from there.' That's not the right way to do it."
Instead, it's "just political optics" to get Afghans out fast, meaning that there are people who have applied for special immigrant visas who have not completed the process.
"My question is, what happens once they get here if we find derogatory information?" said Morgan. "What are we going to do with them? It's absolutely not the way the process should be handled. Do we have the resources in place to help extract those individuals if we find per se, one of them is an Al Qaeda individual or from ISIS, a bad actor."
He pointed out that the United States southwest border remains the "least secure border in our lifetime," as 300,000 people have already gotten past the nation's frontline defenses.
But the problem with the Afghan refugees could be stopped if they were taken to a third country for vetting, or even to a U.S. military base and thoroughly vet them there before allowing them in the United States.
"It is not the military's job to vet these individuals," said Morgan.
"It is up to the State Department along with the Department of Human Services, yet we have not heard anything from the secretary (Anthony Blinken). What we need to do is demand he'll get out to answer questions and guarantee to the American people that not one single Afghan that's going to settle in this country poses a threat to this country. We should demand on him to say that and he's been nowhere to be found."
Morgan also commented on the Supreme Court's decision this week that upheld former President Donald Trump's "Remain in Mexico " policy, saying he doesn't think that will still do enough to keep potential bad actors out of the country.
"This administration really needs to reinstitute that the network of tools and policies that the Trump administration enacted," said Morgan. "This administration had the most secure, secure border in a lifetime but it's a game-changer."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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